The Adventures of Rei Kitsuna
by LadyKitsuna
Summary: Rei Kitsuna is one of two members left from the ancient Kitsuna clan. This is a story following her life; from when she was a genin to the mission that changed her life. OCxOC, and a little ItachixOC
1. Rei Kitsuna

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

**The Adventures of Rei Kitsuna**

"Hello! My name is Rei Kitsuna. If you didn't realize already, I come from the Kitsuna clan. My clan has been in Konoha since the making of the village. We specialize in wind based ninjutsu, making barriers, and illusions. Some people have this crazy idea that members of my clan are descendents of the fox demons from the ancient times because of our prowess in illusions, but that's just a silly rumor.

About a year after I was born, my clan was wiped out from the Kyuubi, or the infamous nine-tailed fox, along with many other shinobi from my village. My sister, Kristi, and I are the only remaining Kitsuna in existence. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but I don't know any other Kitsuna, so I'm sticking with what I know. Kristi is five years older than me with beautiful long, brown locks. She has stunning blue eyes, which is, or was, pretty common within the Kitsuna clan. Sadly, I was left with brown eyes and brown hair, which is common everywhere else. Okay, enough with physical descriptions let me get back to the semi-history of the clan consisting of me and my sister.

Let's see, my clan has been very close friends with the Uchiha clan for years now. You know, the clan that excels at fire based ninjutsu and hold the power of the Sharingan. I'm very prideful of my clan; we're friends with the most powerful clan around and hold a lot of power ourselves. My sister is especially close with Itachi Uchiha, the genius of the Uchiha clan. They've been secretly dating for… three years now. Only Sasuke, Itachi's younger brother and my close friends, and I are the only ones who know, we like to spy on them sometimes, hehe."

"Okay, how about we get to the actual story now! I'll start at when I was 9 years old and my sister is 14."


	2. Chapter 1: First Day

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 1: First Day at the Ninja Academy

"KRISTI NEE-CHAAANNNN! IT'S TIME TO GO TO THE ACADEMY! I DON'T WANNA BE LATE ON MY FIRST DAY!" my 8 year old self yelled, as I ran around the house looking for my Onee- chan. As I turned a corner, into the kitchen, I ran into something and fell on my bottom.

"Rei-chan, we won't be late, you still have an hour until class starts and we're only 5 minutes away," Kristi calmly told me, she's always so calm, that's one of the reasons why I respect her so much, and she's only 14! She probably gets it from hanging with Itachi- nii so much.

"I'm just so excited! I'm finally gonna be a ninja! Then I can be as strong as you! When are we leaving?"

Laughing gently at my excited tone she said, "We are leaving in half an hour, we're meeting with Itachi and Sasuke-kun at the lake."

"Is Sasuke-kun in my class?" I hopefully asked.

"Yes Rei-chan, you two better not act up on your first day." Psshh, she worries too much, of course I'm not going to act up on my first day.

"Hai Kristi-nee, I'll be good."

"Good, now eat some breakfast then we can leave."

"Okay!"

Walking into the small clearing, I saw a beautiful blue lake, surrounded by flowers of many different colors; blue, purple, pink, yellow, white. If this was my first visit, I'd probably be staring in awe, but this is where I play all the time, since it's only a 10 minute walk from house.

At the edge of the lake, I saw two dark figures, one slightly taller than my nee-chan and the other as tall as me. As I got closer, I began recognizing features; both had the dark hair and dark eyes of the Uchiha clan, along with the fan that adorned their shirts.

"ITACHI-NIIIIIII!" I ran to the taller figure and jumped when I was within reach. He caught me before I could tackle him to the floor. "Stop jumping all over people loser, you look like a frog" I looked to my right and stuck out my tongue.

"Shut up Sasuke-baka, you're just jealous."

"I'm not jealous of a loser, idiot"

"I'm not a loser or an idiot!"

"Alright you two, stop arguing, we're going to be late." Kristi's serene voice interrupted before a fist fight could start.

"Oh no! I can't be late on the first day!" "Come on Kristi-nee!" I said hurriedly as I grabbed her right hand and began to run.

I looked behind us and yelled, "Hurry up Itachi-nii and Sasuke-baka!" then I looked forward again and continued running towards the academy, my sister laughing at my antics.

I bent over to catch my breath as I stood just outside the academy entrance. Loud pants could be heard from me and Sasuke. When I looked over, I saw that Kristi-nee and Itachi-nii didn't look tired at all. I couldn't wait to be a ninja just like them!

"Alright Rei-chan, your class will start in 5 minutes. Itachi and I have a mission we need to go on, so I most likely won't be home in time to pick you up after," she kneeled down and ruffled my hair, "Sorry, but I will be home tonight, before you go to sleep."

"It's alright Nee-chan; I'll find something to do, maybe practice what I learn today!" It was true, I'd be alright and find something to do, I was used to it; she had to go on quite a few missions since she was one of the best chuunin. She also had to earn money for us to live on.

"Well, we must be leaving now, behave." She once again reminded me to behave. I guess she doesn't think I have that much self-control, hehe.

"Hai Nee-chan! I'll behave." I assured her once more. Sasuke-kun and I gave her and Itachi-nii hugs before they left, then walked through the academy doors. We were both excited, smiles on our faces. As we walked into the classroom, I saw a lot of kids. There were small cliques everywhere, in the back, there were about 5 girls talking amongst themselves loudly, something about a really cute guy. To the left, there was a boy with spiky hair sleeping, next to him was a slightly chubby one, eating chips, and in front of them was a shy looking girl in a hoodie. She had pale white eyes. _"Must be from the Hyuuga clan"_ I thought to myself. They were a powerful clan just like the Uchiha.

Suddenly, the girls in the back became silent and looked towards the front, where I was. I looked behind me and saw Sasuke-kun enter the classroom, a few minutes after me. So, Sasuke-kun must be the cute kid they were talking about. I turned to him, "Sasuke-kun, what took you so long, I thought you were right behind me."

"I went to the bathroom, not that it's any of your business loser." He then smirked at me as my anger grew.

"Humph, fine, whatever." He frowned as I walked off, guess he doesn't like an easy victory. I went to an empty seat in the middle of the room. I felt someone staring at me, so I turned to look behind me. It was more like someones; the 5 girls in the back were glaring at me, GLARING at ME! The nerve of those girls! Just as I was about to say something, Sasuke-kun came to sit next to me and the teacher walked in.

"Good morning class, I'm Iruka and will be your sensei for the next 4 years." Then, he looked around, and adopted a slightly angry look. _"Why does he look so angry? Nobody did anything."_ **"Stop dragging me! Let me go, I can walk by myself!"** _"Who is that?"_ I wondered. **"Alright, Naruto-kun, but please stop being so loud, and don't run off!"** This voice was feminine. So I guess the first voice belonged to this… Naruto person. Not 5 seconds after the door opened and revealed a slightly disheveled blonde kid, with whiskers and bright, blue eyes. "Naruto, please sit down, I'm not in the mood to yell right now." Iruka-sensei calmly said. Then, two more people entered the class; they looked to be 1 year older than me, making them 2 years older than the rest of the class. "Thank you Tsubaki-chan, Hige-kun, you two can take a seat now, behind Rei-chan. Rei-chan, raise your hand please." I did as I was told, and the two older kids came to take a seat behind me. The boy, Hige, sat behind Sasuke-kun. He had light brown hair, light brown eye, red marks on his cheeks and a cheeky smile. _"Guess he's from the Inuzuka clan, with those marks. Why's he smiling like that?"_ To his right, and directly behind me, sat the black-haired girl, Tsubaki. She had long, black hair in a braid along her back. Her hair fell to her waist line. She had a dark shade of blue eyes and was scowling at her friend.

The boy, still smiling at me, said, "Hey there, wanna be my girlfriend?"

I stared at him in shock. He doesn't even know me! Sasuke-kun looked just about ready to punch him; he was very protective of me, we're like family. Tsubaki beat him to it though, and smacked Hige upside the head. She then looked to me, "Sorry, he says that to every pretty girl he says, take it as a compliment."

"Alright…" I replied, and then looked forward to Iruka-sensei, as he began the lesson plan for the first day.

"That was fun today, ne Sasuke-kun?" It was very entertaining for me anyway. Iruka-sensei yelled at Naruto-kun for everything!

He shrugged his shoulders. "It was alright, I wouldn't really say fun; all we learned were the first 10 shinobi rules."

"Yeah, but it means we're that much closer to _being_ shinobi!" I exclaimed.

We're on our way to the lake, we figured we spar a little, see how long we can go for.

10 minutes into our walk, I heard someone call my name. "Rei-koi! Wait up!" I turned around, and guess who I saw. It couldn't be anyone but Hige-kun, one of my first new friends. And not too far behind him was Tsubaki-chan. Hige-kun came to a halt right before me and was panting, hard. Tsubaki-chan stopped right beside him, breathing hard as well. "Rei… chan, where are… you… two goi… ing?" "Sasuke-kun and I are going to the lake and are gonna spar" I answered her, "Do you two want to come?" "Sure! We'll all spar! It'll be fun!" Hige-kun said. He recovered from the run faster than Tsubaki-chan. I nodded, and we all continued to walk to the lake.

After our little spar session, which only lasted a few minutes due to our lack of stamina, everyone was sprawled out on the lush, green grass, breathing hard. Nobody was injured too badly, maybe a bruise here or there, I would say we did pretty well.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun, can we go to your house?" I asked. I really didn't want to go home, where I'd be by myself for a few hours yet.

"I don't see why not, my mom won't mind." He replied.

"Oh, I bet she'll make cookies after working so hard! We should ask!" I exclaimed. Sasuke's mom, Mikoto, made the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. I saw him grimace at my remark; Sasuke-kun isn't a big fan of sweets. "She'll probably give you tomatoes if you want." I said, trying to cheer him up a little bit.

"Probably, we should go now so we have time to eat." Okay, now I think he's as excited as me! I looked over to our two, silent, companions.

"Are you guys coming too? I'm sure Mikoto-san wouldn't mind at all. She loves company." I told them. Sasuke nodded, it seemed he liked our two new friends as well.

"Sure, I love cookies!" Exclaimed Tsubaki-chan. Hige-kun agreed full-heartedly as well. So, we walked off towards the Uchiha compound. When we arrived at the main house, we all removed our shoes, so as not to track in dirt, and walked in through the shoji doors.

"Okaa-san, I'm home. And I have company!" Sasuke-kun informed his mother, and she beckoned us into the kitchen.

"Hello Rei-chan, nice to see you again!" She walked up to me and hugged me in greeting, as she always does, and kissed Sasuke-kun atop his head.

"Who are your new friends?" She asked us. "This is Tsubaki-chan and Hige-kun" Sasuke-kun introduced everyone and Mikoto began making cookies. We didn't even have to say anything. We all went to the back of the main house and sat and talked. A few minutes later, Mikoto came out with a plate of cookies, milk, and an extra plate of sliced tomatoes, for Sasuke-kun of course. That boy's sense of taste is ridiculous!

We talked some more, then went our separate ways when it began to get dark.

When I got home, I jumped in the shower and thought about my day. It was very eventful to say the least, and I made new friends. This was one of the best days of my life! Well, 8 years of life. As I dried myself off, I heard Kristi-nee downstairs in kitchen, probably making dinner, so I walked down to greet her.

"Hi Kristi-nee! How was your mission?" I asked. It's always fun to hear about her missions, at least the 'action-packed' ones. "It was fine, Itachi-kun and I just had to deliver medicine to a nearby village, nothing big happened." She smiled as she said this, probably knowing I was disappointed in the lack of fighting. Then, she asked me, "How was your first day at the ninja academy? Did you meet anyone new?" After that, she couldn't get me to shut up. I spoke of the annoying, gossiping girls, Naruto-kun, who seemed to be shunned by everyone except Iruka-sensei, the 10 shinobi rules and my new friends.

An hour later, I was lying in my bed. The last thing in my mind before I fell asleep was, _"I hope tomorrow is just as much fun!"_


	3. Chapter 2: The Lonely Boy

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 2: The Annoying Girls and the Lonely Boy

Once again, Sasuke-kun and I walked into the classroom, and once again, those 5 gossiping girls glared at me. So, as Sasuke-kun went to take his seat, I continued to the back, past Tsubaki-chan and Hige-kun, who watched me, confusion in their faces. The girls stared at me then continued glaring.

"What is your problem?" I asked them, bluntly. The girl with the long, blond hair, and blue eyes stepped forward. Her name is Ino if I remember correctly. I don't even remember the names of the other girls. "You need to stay away from _my_ Sasuke-kun! He doesn't want you, so why don't you just back off!" I stared at her, angry as to the reason why she kept glaring at me. "Well, first off, he's not _your_ Sasuke-kun, so I'm not going to stay away. Secondly, he's my friend so I'm not going to 'back-off'. And thirdly, he doesn't want_ you_, so you should stop making a fool of yourself." This seems to have made her angrier, and just as she opened her mouth to say something again, snickering was heard to my right. It got louder, meaning the person was walking towards us; it sounded feminine. Ino and I looked over and saw a pink-haired girl. "Shut up Forehead Girl! I don't see what's so funny!" Ino yelled. "You being told off is what's funny Ino-pig!" The 'forehead girl' continued to laugh and Ino yelled at her. This became a full out argument with insults everywhere. I just walked back to my seat and sighed. Now it looks like I've made enemies on my second day, but whatever. Iruka-sensei walked in and saw the two yelling girls. "Ino, Sakura, return to your seats and stop arguing!" Poor Iruka-sensei, he's always yelling, he's probably all stressed out.

With that said, class began. I looked around. It seemed Naruto made it to class on time, but he was sleeping. Everyone seemed to ignore him, I felt bad for him. Maybe I'll talk to him after, befriend him._"Yeah, that's what I'll do! Everyone needs a friend, maybe I'll be his first one."_

Sasuke-kun, Tsubaki-chan, Hige-kun and I were the last ones out of the academy today. As we walked through the door, I saw Naruto sitting by himself on the swing. I turned to my friends, "Why don't we ask him if he wants to hang out with us?" "Um, Rei-chan, my parents said not to be around him, sorry." Tsubaki-chan was the one who said this. "Yeah, same here, they'll kill me if I don't listen." This time it was Hige-kun. They were all backing out! Finally, I turned to Sasuke-kun, who hadn't said anything yet. "You know my parents say the same things Rei-chan." He looked a little upset with what he said, but I knew that. And he really wanted to impress his father, so he definitely wasn't going to go against his wishes. "Fine, then you guys can go, I'm gonna go talk to Naruto-kun." I wasn't gonna be shallow like them! They all shrugged and started walking away. Tsubaki-chan looked back with a sad expression, but kept walking anyway. I walked over to the Naruto boy and stood there, looking at him. He looked up at me and had an expression that I can't really explain. I held out my hand, "Hello there, my name is Rei Kitsuna! Want to be friends?" His face took on a confused look, then smiled brightly and took my hand. "Sure! I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I'm going to be Hokage!" _"He's really loud!"_ was my first impression of him, but he seems nice enough. After the introductions, we sat talking. I found out that he had no idea why everyone would ignore him or say rude things. He didn't do anything, which led him to doing pranks, so he'd be noticed more. I felt really bad; it must be awful with no family and friends. We talked some more, then he looked up, slightly worried. I furrowed my brows in confusion then turned around, in the direction he was looking. Kristi-nee was walking up to us, the sunset shining behind her, and she was looking angry. "Rei-chan! I can't believe you didn't tell me where you were! I was so worried, I looked for hours!" She exclaimed. She doesn't usually yell, but when she does, you can be pretty sure it's because she's angry. "Gomen nee-chan, I was just talking to my new friend! Naruto Uzumaki!" She looked to Naruto-kun, who was shaking slightly. It seemed he was scared of my Onee-chan, which is pretty smart since she's scary when she's mad. When she saw him, she smiled sweetly and introduced herself. When she did this, Naruto-kun seemed to calm down some. "Why don't you come over and have dinner with us?" He looked up shyly, not the Naruto I just met, and nodded his head yes. Kristi-nee grabbed our hands and began walking towards our house. "I hope Itachi-kun and Sasuke-kun don't mind extra company", she said. I looked up at her and motioned for her to lean down. "Nee-chan, Sasuke-kun says he can't be around Naruto-kun cause his father says not to." Her face hardened and then she said, "What Fugaku doesn't know won't hurt him", and then she adopted a smile and kept walking. I smiled with her.

Itachi-nii and Sasuke-kun were waiting outside the house for us. They looked over and I saw Sasuke-kun tense. He probably noticed Naruto-kun already. Then, Itachi-nii looked over, bent down, and whispered something to Sasuke-kun. Itachi-nii looked angry. Then, Sasuke-kun looked to Itachi-nii and smiled, then nodded, with admiration in his eyes. Nii-chan nodded back and greeted us. "I see we have an extra person for dinner. Hello Naruto-kun, I'm Itachi Uchiha. I'm sure you know my Otouto, Sasuke." Naruto-kun nodded his head. Then we all walked inside and Kristi-nee and Itachi-nii walked into the kitchen to begin cooking. This left me, Sasuke and Naruto alone together. The atmosphere got a little tense, but I started up a conversation and it became comfortable again. Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun got along great together; they fight just like me and Sasuke-kun do.

We are going to be great friends!


	4. Chapter 3: Unexpected Events

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 3: Unexpected Events

It's been a few months now and the academy is going to let out for a break in 2 months. So much has happened in a few months too! I've made a lot of friends; Ino is still hard to get along with though. My close group of friends is Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun, Tsubaki-chan and Hige-kun. Sakura-chan would be too except she doesn't like Naruto-kun and obsesses over Sasuke-kun too much for his liking. But besides that she's fun to hang with. Tsubaki-chan and Hige-kun's parents don't mind them being friends with Naruto-kun after Kristi-nee spoke with them. But Sasuke-kun's father still doesn't approve, nothing new. He's just too stuck up, blah! Oh, and Itachi-nii became an Anbu captain! I'm so happy for him. Except he isn't around much anymore because of it. He seems a little different too, it's kind of weird. Oh well, nothing to stress over, I'm just 9 anyway, right.

"Rei-chan, I've got another mission tonight and I don't know when I'll be back. Tsubaki-chan's father, Daisuke-san, said he'll watch over you until I return." She had on a determined yet sad look on her face, which confused me. I guess she was sad that she was leaving me again for a mission. "Okay nee-chan, I wanna hear details when you return!" If this mission was long, it had to have meant that there will be a fight. But then, her face got even sadder, if possible, and she hugged me. Hard and long. This confused me even more. "Be good Rei-chan, and always do what you believe in", she told me. I drew my brows together in confusion, "Nee-chan, are you okay?" She smiled, "yeah, I'm fine. I'll see you later Rei-chan" It sounded more like a promise than a simple fact and reassurance. "Okay nee-chan! Be safe!" And we waved to each other. _"She's acting so weird." _ I thought, maybe I'll go talk to Tsubaki-chan. So I left to get her.

"Maybe she's just worried since it's a long mission", Tsubaki-chan told me. I told her about what happened earlier but she didn't seem too worried, so I let it go. Sasuke-kun showed up a few hours later, saying he was bored because Itachi-nii had a mission as well. They were probably teamed as they used to be.

Soon, Sasuke-kun left to practice throwing his shuriken. He wanted to be better than Itachi-nii. I'm staying at Tsubaki-chan's house, we're having a sleepover! I haven't been to one before so I'm excited. We fell asleep late, so we slept in late too the next morning. We didn't have to go to the academy, it was one of our free days, to practice and do other things. We were woken up from loud knocking. I heard Daisuke-san talking, and then two more voices responded. Tsubaki-chan and I went downstairs to see who it was and we saw two Anbu, with a very upset Sasuke Uchiha. I had tears rolling down his face and looked like he hadn't slept all night. I ran over to him and hugged him, trying to calm him down. Tsubaki-chan ran over as well, but just watched silently. She didn't know how to help. Daisuke-san and the two, more advanced ninja, left to enter a different room, probably where they could have privacy. The three of us stepped outside and sat in the grass a little ways away. I asked Sasuke-kun what happened and what he said made my blood run cold. "What? That's not possible. They wouldn't have done something like that!" I exclaimed, not believing what I was hearing. Itachi-nii and Kristi-nee would never kill the Uchiha, never! "I saw it with my own eyes! They did and I couldn't do anything. My whole clan is dead!" He said through his sobs. I just couldn't believe they'd do this. But, all evidence was on Sasuke-kun's side. Kristi-nee looking so upset had to have been a big warning. I hugged Sasuke-kun even tighter. I knew what it felt like to lose your entire family at once. It's very upsetting to say the least. He soon fell asleep and Tsubaki-chan and I stayed outside, talking quietly. The two Anbu soon walked out and over to us. Apparently, they had questioned Sasuke-kun already, to see if he knew anything, and now it was my turn. Daisuke-san put Sasuke-kun in the guest bedroom of his house and walked back outside to get Tsubaki-chan. I had to be questioned alone I guessed. They took me to a room at the Hokage Tower with a table for us to sit around. They questioned me for nearly an hour, practically asking the same question. "What did she say to you?" "Did she tell you what she was doing?" Stupid questions like those. Obviously she told me she was going on a mission, I'm not answering the same question twice idiots. I didn't say that though, I thought it'd be rude. I was released after they concluded that I actually had no idea that's what was going to occur.

After that night, the Uchiha massacre became infamous everywhere, along with the 'murderers' Itachi Uchiha and Kristi Kitsuna. Sasuke-kun didn't talk to anyone, not even me anymore, and would go off to train after the academy let out for the day. He'd go to the Uchiha compound and eat alone. The girls still crushed over him, but were afraid to talk to him now.

I mostly stayed at Tsubaki-chan's house. I didn't want to be in the house that reminded me that my nee-chan wasn't going to come back at night and make me dinner. Or show up in the mornings, make me breakfast, and then walk me to school. I was the last of my clan in the village of Konoha, and it was depressing.


	5. Chapter 4: After the Academy

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 4: After the Academy

It's been 4 years since the Uchiha Massacre. I know own ninja attire. My outfit consists of a sleeveless fishnet shirt, a light blue short sleeved shirt that falls over my left shoulder. I like to wear dark blue, fingerless gloves. I wear fishnet leggings that go to just below my knees. Over the leggings I wear a matching light blue skirt that falls to just above my knees. There are slits on either side, making it easy for me to move around. My new ninja headband is worn around my waist, the metal part over my left hip. I'm 13 years old now and a genin! We were given our teams yesterday and guess what! I'm teamed up with Tsubaki-chan and Hige-kun! Hige-kun is still annoying as ever but I'll get used to it I guess. It is a pretty good pair up though, I must admit. I'm best at taijutsu and am very good at detecting genjutsu. Tsubaki-chan is training to be medic-nin, like her father, and she's good at performing genjutsu, thanks to her excellent chakra control. Hige-kun is fairly good at water-based ninjutsu and taijutsu. His senses are excellent too, since he comes from the Inuzuka clan. (I still need to practice my wind jutsus; Kristi-nee hasn't been here to teach me the clan jutsus…)

We're meeting up at the lake for our first day of training. Our sensei is Hitoshi-sensei. He's very kind and calm. "Tsubaki-chan, Hige-kun! Morning!" I yelled, as they entered my sight. "Morning Rei-chan!" They said in unison. "I guess we can begin now that everyone is here" I screamed and fell as the voice came from behind me. "Hitoshi-sensei! Don't scare me like that!" Chuckling, he said, "Sorry Rei-chan, you should be more aware of your surroundings though." "Yes, I know. So, what are we doing today?" Maybe we'll spar the sensei, I love a good fight! "I think we will climb trees, to test your chakra control" he said, staring thoughtfully up at a tree. "Climb a tree?" Hige-kun sounded as confused as I was. "Yes, climb a tree. Watch." Hitoshi-sensei began climbing the tree, one step at a time. We all watched in awe. "Now, what you do is focus your chakra to the bottom of your foot. If you add too much," he cut himself off as he added more chakra and the tree splintered where his foot used to be. He jumped softly to the grass beneath him. "Cool", I said. He began again, "If you don't add enough, you'll just fall down." Again, he jumped to the ground. "Can I try now?" "Sure Rei-chan. everyone will go at the same time. I need to get something, but I'll be back shortly. Practice until I return." "Hai Hitoshi-sensei!" we all yelled. I started first, performing the tiger seal to help me concentrate and gather chakra to my feet. When I felt ready, I pulled apart my hands and began walking up the tree. I got about halfway up until I began to fall backwards. I changed my fall into a back flip so I could land on my feet at the base of the tree. "Whoops, I forgot to keep the chakra going, hehe." I said. Hige-kun tried next. "Watch me Rei-chan; if I do this on the first time, you have to go on a date with me!" "Sure sure Hige-kun." I replied lazily. He wouldn't get it on the first try anyhow. He began to run up the tree. He ended up falling on his back, and pieces of bark fell on and beside him. He added too much chakra. "Sorry, maybe next time Hige-kun" "Yeah, definitely next time!" That boy never gives up, sigh. "Tsubaki-chan, your turn." I said and Hige-kun looked over to her. She nodded and began. She walked up the tree, and kept going, and going, until she finally reached the top. She stood on a branch and looked at us, and then she grinned and jumped down. "Whoa Tsubaki-chan, you're really good!" I said, very impressed with what she just did. Hige-kun agreed, equally amazed. "Well, like sensei said, it's all about chakra control and I need very good control as a medic. It's not that hard after you get it down the first time." I nodded my head in determination, "Alright Hige-kun, if Tsubaki-chan can do it, we can too! Let's go!" "Hai!" We both ran up the tree at the same time. We continued to run up the tree for the next hour and a half.

All three of us were lying on the ground, talking. We had finally mastered it!

"My my, I wonder why my students are all talking and laying on the ground. They couldn't possible have mastered that test already." "Hitoshi-sensei! We did it, come watch!" As I yelled this, all three of us prepared ourselves in front of a tree, and then ran up at the same time. Within seconds we were atop our own trees and waved down at our sensei. "Very good job, now come on down and have some lunch, you three did excellent." We ran down to get our meals. Working on chakra control can make you _very_ tired.

"Well, since you three did so well today I figure we can start missions. What do you gu-""Of course we want to do missions? We'll be the best ninja team ever!" I interrupted him, kind of rudely, but he didn't care. He just laughed. "Very well, be here tomorrow morning at 8." "Hai!"


	6. Chapter 5: The Kitsuna Scroll

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 5: The Kitsuna Scroll

We've been doing nothing but D ranked missions for the past 4 months! I mean, I like doing missions and everything, but there is hardly any action whatsoever! The most action we get is running around the village looking for someone's pet. Sigh, maybe I'll ask Hitoshi-sensei if we can get a harder mission. But for today, I'm gonna practice my ninjutsu. I've been ignoring it lately, favoring my taijutsu instead. I'm going to have to search around my old house though. I haven't been there since the morning of the massacre. I guess you have to face your ghosts sometimes, right?

On my way home, I passed by the bridge that Team 7 usually meets at. And wouldn't you know; it looks like they're getting ready for another mission. Team 7 consists of Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha. They're sensei is Kakashi Hatake, known as the infamous copycat Nin. I haven't talked to Sasuke-kun since the day after the massacre. It's been 4 and a half years, I'm not even sure if I know him anymore. "Rei-chan! Over here!" I glanced to my left and saw the obnoxious blonde waving at me. I haven't talked to Naruto-kun too much either since we were given our teams. No time I guess. "Hi Naruto-kun. How have you been? Do you like your team?" I asked him politely. I was excited to find the scroll with the Kitsuna jutsus. "I'm fine and this team is great! See, Sakura-chan is on it! Sasuke-teme kind of dulls it a little though." I laughed at that, it seems they're the same as always. "Hello Sakura-chan, Sasuke-kun. How have you two been?" The question was mostly directed to Sasuke, but it seems he talks even less than he did before. "Hn." "I'm fine!" The second answer was from Sakura-chan, and she looked to Sasuke-kun when she said it. I guess she still has a crush on him. Sasuke-kun is probably annoyed with that. I smirked at him, "That's great, I'm glad both of you are doing fine." He scowled at me. He knew I was laughing inside at his predicament. "Well, I have to go home now, bye!" Then I walked off. Sasuke-kun looked confused for some reason. I shrugged, I'll find out why later.

I found the key under the doormat, where everyone keeps their spare key, and opened the door. I sneezed when the dust from inside flew at me. I walked in and looked around. _"Well, it doesn't seem as if anything was touched"_ Which it shouldn't have been if I wasn't visiting. I turned on the lights and saw how dusty and empty it really was. I mean, all of my old belongings were still here, but it seemed empty since no one had lived here for 4 years. _"I guess I'll clean first, even though I hate cleaning. This dust is going to kill me."_ With that, I began to clean the house.

I finished 5 hours later, just as the sun began its descent. I began to make dinner, with the few groceries I bought right after I finished cleaning. I had to tell Tsubaki-chan that I was planning on staying here for the night. She looked worried, but soon got over it. I'll look for the scroll tomorrow; we wouldn't be going on a mission tomorrow. Tsubaki-chan told me Hitoshi-sensei was sent on a mission. We're still lacking Jounin after the Kyuubi attack 12 years ago. I ate my rice and chicken in silence, and then went to sleep. I'd begin looking after breakfast tomorrow.

"I know it has to be here somewhere!" The entire house was a mess. Books and scrolls lying in piles everywhere, drawers were thrown awry. _Thump Thump_ "Ugh, who could that be at…?" I looked to a nearby clock. It was 3 already? "Wow, I've been looking for hours!" "I'm coming, hold on!" I ran through the house so the person wouldn't have to wait at the door. _"Wow, the house is really messy! I'll have to clean it again! Sigh"_ I opened the door slowly, so it didn't look like I was rushing, and there stood, "Sasuke-kun? What are you doing here?" I was very confused. I wasn't expecting it to be him at the door. "Hn." He looked around my shoulders and raised an eyebrow, "reorganizing?" That little punk! Getting sarcastic with me! "I was looking for something actually, so if you didn't need anything, I'd like to resume looking." He stared at me, "What are you looking for? You haven't been here for years." Psshh, like I didn't know that. But I decided to tell him anyway, it's not too big a secret. "I'm looking for scrolls of my clan. I know there are some around here somewhere. I need to learn more jutsu." "I'll help you look", he said, as he began to walk past me. I sighed and closed the door. I would be very grateful for any help with this mess. "So, what does this scroll look like?" he was rummaging through a drawer in the office area. Kristi-nee would write her reports here. "It looks like a scroll, Sasuke-kun." "I meant, is there anything on it? I know it looks like a scroll loser." Well, he's back to calling me names, I think that's a good sign. Sigh, "It should have the Kitsuna emblem on it, you know, the fox footprint inside/next to a crescent moon." "Hm. Oh, like on the back of your shirt?" he asked. "Yep, I looked through the whole house and still haven't found it." I was really beginning to get depressed. He took on a thoughtful look. "Your clan used to be as powerful as the mine, right?" I nodded, "Yeah, they used to be one of the strongest. Why?" "That means they would have lived in a compound like my clan, right?" Oh right! "Yeah! But, I haven't been to it since I was a baby, I don't even know where it is." "We can ask the Hokage, he'll know. It might be there. Or in the archives." Right again! Jeez, Sasuke-kun got smarter over the years. "Okay, let's go!" I grabbed him by the hand and dragged him out of the house to Hokage Tower.

I bowed low, "Hokage-sama! I have a question, if you don't mind" I said as I raised and stood straight, Sasuke-kun did the same to my right. "Of course I don't mind, what is it you need Rei-chan?" "Um, I was looking for my clan scrolls; do you know where they might be?" I looked to his eyes. I learned that you can see everything when looking into someone's eyes. "I believe they were put in the archives. They are locked up, do you want them?" My eyes widened in surprise, "I can have them?" He laughed at that, "Of course you can have them. It is your clan's scrolls, meaning they are yours. I was going to give them to you when you became a chuunin, but if you are asking now, I have no problem giving them sooner." "Really? Thank you so much Hokage-sama!" I bowed again, then looked to Sasuke-kun and pushed him into a bow as well. "Yes, I just need to tell the person guarding the archives. Here, take this and give it to the Chuunin standing at the entrance, they'll take you to the scrolls." "Thank you again! You're my favorite kage ever!" I politely took the scroll from the laughing Hokage and took off towards the archives, Sasuke-kun in tow.

I was shaking with excitement as we were led to the back of the archives, where clan scrolls were hidden. The chuunin leading us opened a vault with some type of jutsu and led us in. He pointed to where they were, and then watched as I rushed over to look them over. There were only about 4 scrolls. Two were all about ninjutsu, one had a seal on it and I needed a special jutsu to open it. The last one was on the history of the clan, boring. I grabbed all of the scrolls and walked outside. The chuunin used a jutsu again to close the vault and led us to the archive entrance. Once outside, I looked to Sasuke-kun. "I finally found them! " I yelled and ran to my house. Sasuke-kun followed and I put the scrolls away in the office area and walked to the kitchen, about to make dinner. "Want to go to Ichiraku for dinner? The dobe and Sakura said we were doing a team dinner." Sasuke's voice stopped me from opening the fridge, and then I turned around to look at him. "Sure, why not? Oh, I know, I'll bring my team too; it'll be like a party!" He scowled at that, but followed me to Tsubaki's house, and then to Hige's house.

"Rei-chan! You're gonna eat with us too?" Naruto-kun yelled loudly, Sakura-chan was scowling at him. "Naruto, you're too loud!" Aw, poor Naruto-kun, he looked sad now. "Well, we haven't talked for awhile, so I figured it'd be fun to hang out with you guys for a little bit. I brought my team too. I hope you don't mind." This cheered him up again.

We ended up talking for awhile. Kakashi came too. He's funny, but very perverted. He left before everyone got finished. Naruto-kun was upset because Kakashi said he would take the bill, hehe. We parted ways after a few hours and went home. I had a lot to do, starting with reading those scrolls!


	7. Chapter 6: The Clan Secret

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 6: The Clan Secret

So, I've read through the ninjutsu scroll and I'm so excited to start! But, at the beginning of the first scroll, there was a jutsu that says I can walk on air! Now, you're probably thinking, you can't walk on air, but scrolls never lie! Except fake ones and this isn't fake! It will take some time though. Apparently, only my clan can perform this jutsu, and it's kind of a two in one jutsu. The scroll says that at a young age, Kitsuna clan members would release about half of their chakra into the surrounding air. But, being a Kitsuna, the chakra is recognized and kind of 'absorbed' into the air, staying there for use later. That's the best way I can describe it anyway. The chakra can obviously be manipulated by the user, meaning the user can use wind ninjutsu. This is most likely the reason why all Kitsuna are wind users. If chakra is added over the years, the user can manipulate it under their feet, enabling them to walk on air, like they're flying. The chakra can also be recalled in case of an emergency and the user is low on chakra. The scroll states that there are side effects, but doesn't say what they are. I guess no one ever used it. I guess I'll start the chakra thing then.

I walked to the lake and sat down in the lush grass. I didn't have to meet up with my team for another two hours. I put my hands together and concentrated on my chakra. I've been able to manipulate my chakra easier since the chakra control test I did a few months back. I felt my chakra running throughout my body. Slowly, I forced it through my skin, into the air surrounding me. I couldn't really feel anything, except a slight tingling. "Rei-chan, what are you doing?" I stopped the chakra flow immediately and opened my eyes in surprise. "Hi Hitoshi-sensei. I was just releasing my chakra." He seemed confused as to my explanation. "I'm aware you were releasing, but why?" "It's a clan jutsu; it'll make some jutsus easier." "Okay then, are you ready for a new mission?" He still didn't seem so sure, but changed the topic. I stood up, I was done anyway. "Depends on what kind of mission sensei." I raised a brow at him, "We're not pulling anymore weeds are we?" He laughed, "Nope, I think you'll like this one, but I'll wait to explain until the other two arrive." Now I was getting excited. Maybe we'll actually fight! We talked for a few minutes; it seems he was extra early today. Then, he stood up. "Hurry up you two, we'll be late for our first mission outside of the village." Tsubaki-chan and Hige-kun then ran over, just as excited as me. "What do we have to do on the mission sensei?" Tsubaki-chan calmly asked. She can be just as calm as Kristi-nee was. "We are to travel to a small town within fire country's borders and get rid of a small group of bandits terrorizing the locals. Bandits shouldn't be too difficult for you three to handle. I'll be there, of course, just in case something goes wrong." All three of us were shaking in excitement now; finally, we get to demonstrate what we've been training for! "When do we leave sensei?" Hige-kun asked excitedly. "Right after you pack your things. Make sure you are prepared for a week." "Hai!" Then, we were running off to our houses. We met at the gate 20 minutes later.

"Are you three ready?" Bad question. "Haaaaiiiiiiiiii!" We yelled excitedly and maybe too loudly. "Alright, you know you're going to have to be quieter on the mission, right?" We all nodded. "Alright, let's go then." We began our run to the border town.


	8. Chapter 7: Teamwork

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 7: Teamwork

We made it to the town in two days. Tsubaki-chan, Hige-kun and I entered the hotel room we'd be staying in until the mission was completed. Hitoshi-sensei went to talk to the head of the town about the details.

"This is so exciting, ne?" I plopped down on the nice, fluffy bed.

"It is! I'll definitely impress you this time Rei-koi!"

"Hige-kun, don't you get bored saying that all the time?" I asked him. "I mean, you don't really love me, right?"

He shrugged, "It keeps me busy," then he smiled his lopsided smile, "and you secretly like it!"

"Psshh, yeah, dream on Hige-kun"

"Rei-chan, did you learn any new jutsus from those scrolls?"

"Not really, I haven't had too much time to study them yet. I just know the Dragon breath jutsu that Kristi-nee taught me a while ago."

"Oh, well, maybe we'll have time to work on it when we finish the mission. I'll help you if you need it."

"Thanks Tsubaki-chan, that'll be fun!"

The door opened shortly after and Hitoshi-sensei appeared. "Come on you three, time to scout around."

"Hai sensei!" We all got up, strapped our weapon pouches to our legs, I pulled my blue gloves on, and we left.

Hige-kun was given a knife that belonged to one of the bandits. He used the scent on the knife to look for the hiding bandits. I guess they heard ninja were coming to take them out! Hige-kun led us all around the surrounding forest, it felt like we were going in circles, but Hitoshi-sensei didn't seem too worried, so neither was I. I jerked my head to the right and stopped dead in my tracks. I furrowed my brows, _"I've got to be seeing things"_ "What is it Rei-chan?" Hitoshi-sensei was looking at me… expectantly? "I'm not sure, I could've sworn I saw a...a light blue thing, to my right. It looked almost like a small flame. But when I looked, it was gone." "What were you doing when you saw it? Besides following us of course." Hm... What _was_ I doing? "I was straining my senses, to try to get an idea of where they might be." "Alright, you said to your right?" "Hai" I answered, then looked at him in confusion. He changed directions and led us in the direction I was looking. "Where are we going sensei? The scent goes that way." Hige-kun pointed to his left, in the direction we were going. "I'll explain later, we're going this way for now" We didn't want to question our sensei, so we kept going. In a few minutes, we heard talking, about 5 different voices. We stopped and stayed hidden, which wasn't too hard since the sun had long since gone beyond the horizon, giving way to the moon. "Cast a genjutsu Tsubaki. Hige and Rei, once they are overcome by the genjutsu, take them out. They don't need to be alive." We gulped, we hadn't killed anyone before, and being put in this situation was scary, but I could do it. I hope Hige-kun could too. With that Tsubaki-chan performed several hand seals and her eyes were set in determination and concentration. She nodded her head slightly, nodding to us that she had cast the jutsu. Hige-kun and I pulled out our kunai. "You two have to be quick, she can't hold it very long yet." We nodded silently and ran out. I ran to one on the right and Hige-kun went to the one in front, we slit their throat and kept running, towards the farther ones. I was three inches from the next victim's throat when I was thrown into Hige-kun. We both hit a tree, hard. I looked to the area I had just been, and saw two huge men. I shook my head, clearing away the fuzziness. Never mind, it was one huge man. He had pushed me with his weight behind it I guess. I stood up shakily and turned to help Hige-kun up as well when the giant man had focused his gaze on Tsubaki-chan and my sensei. "Come on Hige-kun, no time to be lazy," I whispered. He came up just as slowly as I did and said, "What was that?" I pointed the man. "He tackled me." I said disdainfully. "She's not going to hold out much longer, but that guy is in the way still." I looked over to the three guys left. He was right, the man was in the middle of the three and the three slightly smaller bandits began twitching. They were breaking out of the genjutsu. Then I panicked. I heard Tsubaki-chan let out a whimper and the big guy smirked. This fight was going to be difficult with four against three. Sigh, well I said I wanted harder missions, right? The guy charged at our sensei. Hitoshi-sensei grabbed Tsubaki-chan who squealed and teleported next to us. Apparently, that was a high level jutsu and the user could only move a little ways away. Depending on their chakra. He let Tsubaki-chan go next to us and went back to the big guy. "Hitoshi-sensei is gonna fight that giant all by himself?" Saying I was worried was an understatement. "Take care of the three bandits and get back to the town. If they overpower you, run!" Hitoshi-sensei yelled, and then took off, leading the big guy away from us, his precious students. That's when the three men left ran at us. "Guess it's time for the action you've been wishing for Rei-chan" I nodded at Tsubaki-chan's remark. "Let's go then." We dispersed, Hige-kun and I hiding behind trees a few feet away. Tsubaki-chan did several hand signs for another genjutsu. She managed to capture two of the three. The third turned away at the last second, realizing what she was doing.

While she was concentrating, he ran at her. I gasped and ran in front of her. I was the closest anyway. Just as he swiped at my head with his knife, I ducked down, crouching to my knees. I flung out a leg, spun fast, and tripped him. He landed on his back. Hige-kun came out and ran the kunai across his neck before he could get up. The bandit tried getting up at the same time, forcing the kunai in deeper, causing much more blood. I grimaced. Then, the other two bandits broke out of the genjutsu. One of the guys had a sword, and he ran after Hige-kun. The last one ran at Tsubaki-chan and I. I grabbed her and pulled her with me as I ran. We were slightly faster than him, so we stooped behind a tree and tried to catch our breath. "We have to get rid of this guy quickly!" I said, "We can't leave Hige-kun by himself, he'll get killed!" She nodded quickly, "We need a plan though, and I don't have enough chakra to do another genjutsu." Dang it, that's not good. "Come on out pretty little girls, I just wanna play with ya!" We grimaced, play with us, yeah right, dirty man. I held a finger to my mouth, signaling not to talk. Tsubaki-chan nodded. I listened intently; I could hear him walking about five feet behind the tree we were at. His feet caught just about every leaf on the ground, he wasn't too sneaky. I began drawing a sketch in the dirt in front of us while she listened to the man. When I finished I showed her and she understood my plan. She stepped to the side of the tree, where the man could find her. "Oh, so I guess you _do_ wanna play huh? Where's your friend? No matter, I'll have extra fun with you." When he was about a foot in front of her, she tapped the tree once with her hand. I rushed to the other side of the tree, performed five hand seals and held a hand to my mouth. "Fuuton: Dragon Breath Jutsu!" A powerful stream of wind left my mouth, crashing into the bandit and pushing him against a nearby tree, just as his leader did to me. Tsubaki-chan's hand adopted a green hue and she slammed it into the man's chest. He coughed; blood dripping from the edge of his mouth, then closed his eyes. Tsubaki-chan walked up to him slowly and rested her hand against his neck, checking for a pulse. "He's dead" she assured. We nodded to each other and ran in the direction Hige-kun went. "What kind of jutsu was that?" I was curious when I saw it, I didn't know the name. "Chakra Scalpel, it's used medic-nin to cut skin for surgeries and the like. My dad taught it to me." "Oh, that's a convenient technique." She just nodded and we kept going. After about a minute of running we heard a clashing of metal. We slowed to a walk and peeked around a bush on the forest floor. Hige-kun was on the ground with a kunai in front of his face. He was holding off the sword, just inches from striking a killing blow. I heard the names of jutsus being called to the north of the clearing we were in. _"Probably sensei!"_ I thought excitedly. I nodded to Tsubaki-chan to get her attention, and then performed the wind jutsu again. "Fuuton: Dragon Breath Jutsu!" Again, it pushed at the sword-wielding bandit. He resisted against the wind, but Hige-kun took this change to stab at him with the kunai. Seeing this, the bandit allowed the wind to move him, avoiding Hige-kun's attack. The bandit jumped away from the wind stream seconds before being blown into a tree. He looked to our group, now including Hige-kun again, with fury in his eyes. He charged at us. When he was within reach, he swung his sword horizontally, trying to slice at our necks. I turned towards his arm and grabbed it with both of my hands. He was naturally stronger than me, but I had the upper hand with my position, facing his one swinging arm. Hige-kun lunged at him, kunai in hand, but the man jumped away, bringing me with him. I looked to my left when I saw that blue flame again, but it was gone in an instant. What I saw instead made me ecstatic. Hitoshi-sensei was standing out of sight of the bandit holding me and looked perfectly fine, albeit angry. The bandit guy wrapped his arm around my neck, reminding me I was now a captive. I grabbed at his arm, trying to find some way of letting more air to my lungs. My two friends walked towards me despite their fear, intent on getting me back.

But the bandit wouldn't allow them. He brought the sword to my neck, "If you take one more step, she dies!" He yelled. That stopped them in their tracks. I didn't know what to do! I wanted to lash out, to bite, defend myself, but I could barely move. Especially with his stupid sword at my throat! I looked to my left again, but didn't see Hitoshi-sensei. That gave me mixed feelings. I wanted to be hopeful that he had a plan, but not seeing him made me freak that something else happened.

Then, I saw a dark shadow flicker in front of me. The guy's sword was tossed a good twenty feet away and the arm that was holding me was pulled away shortly after as well. I fell to the ground, gasping for breath. That hurt so bad! That's never going to happen to me again! I looked up and saw Hitoshi-sensei holding a kunai that was dripping with blood. My gaze shifted to the man's chest. Blood was dripping down his shirt, his eyes glazed over lifelessly and then he fell in a heap at my sensei's feet. I got up and ran to my sensei, hugging him. "Thank you so much sensei! I thought I was gonna die!" He looked down at me then ruffled my hair, like my sister used to do. "No problem. You guys did great. I'm impressed that you took out all of the bandits by yourself. Besides this one. But four out of five isn't bad at all for genin." We smiled tiredly at him, proud of ourselves. "Let us get back to the hotel then. We'll go out for ice cream when we return to the village." "Yes! I love ice cream! Sensei, you're the best!" I exclaimed. Ice cream was my favorite dessert!


	9. Chapter 8: Chuunin Exams!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 8: Chuunin Exams?

After the wonderful ice cream that Hitoshi-sensei bought for us, I went home and looked at the scrolls some more. When I was scanning them, I saw three that caught my attention; The Searching Winds jutsu, Wind Dragon jutsu, and one where it combined wind-based chakra and taijutsu. The last one gained most of my interest since my area of expertise at the moment is taijutsu, so I decided to look into it.

"The scroll says that the wind-based taijutsu was a preference of members of the Kitsuna clan. They would summon chakra to their limbs, empowering their moves. The hands were used the most, as it could become more like an edged weapon, such as a sword or kunai." Ooh, that's amazing! I'm gonna practice this one first! I'll start whenever I have time, hopefully tomorrow. With that thought, I went to bed for the night.

I walked slowly to the lake, my team's usual meeting spot. I rubbed my eyes several times before I plopped down on the soft grass beneath me. I was extremely tired. Three pairs of eyes looked down at me. "Rei-chan, what are you doing? We didn't come here to sleep." "Tsubaki-chan, I know that! I'm not sleeping." Hitoshi-sensei laughed at our antics, "Calm down, we're not here to argue. I'm here to talk to you about the chuunin exams. They are going to begin in three months time so I have to incorporate a lot of training within that time span. We most likely will stay in the village for training, I may get a mission for us every now and again, but our main focus is on training, especially as a team." He emphasized that by looking at each of us. "When do we start sensei?" "Now. Stand up Rei-chan, we're running around the village to increase stamina, let's go!" He began running; I stood up quickly and followed Tsubaki-chan.

Panting was all that could be heard for ten minutes. We ran five laps around the entire village and we were all dead tired! Except for Hitoshi-sensei of course. I don't know where he gets all that stamina from. "All right! Now we'll work on ninjutsu. We seem to be lacking in that area at the moment, but not for long." He looked to me and Tsubaki-chan. Hige-kun is very good at his water ninjutsu when he uses it.

"Okay, so I know your chakra is wind-based Rei-chan, what about you Tsubaki-chan?" Hitoshi-sensei had his attention on Tsubaki-chan. She looked kind of nervous. "Umm, I'm not sure, am I supposed to know?" Sensei smiled, "No, not really. Here, hold this in your hand." He handed her a square piece of paper. She looked up, confused. "What is this sensei?" "It's chakra paper. Just summon chakra to your hand and watch." She did as he said. When she opened her hand, a burnt looking piece of paper was left. "You have fire-based chakra. That's easy to work with." He nodded in approval, and then he looked to me. "I don't know too many wind jutsus, did you find anything in your scrolls?" I nodded, "Yes sensei, I actually have one in mind." "Okay, that's good. Work on your jutsu. Hige-kun, practice your jutsus as well while I teach Tsubaki-chan a few fire jutsus." "Hai sensei!"

With that, I walked a little further down the lake, where I had more room to practice, just in case something went wrong. I began performing hand signs in a sequence that was foreign to me. Then, I left my hands at the last hand seal, the bird. My eyes set in determination; I concentrated on the surrounding air. I could feel the static power of the surrounding chakra. A form soon began to form in the wind and within another minute, a dragon made of wind winded around me. Sweat was pouring down my face with the strain of the jutsu; my hands began to shake. A strong gust of wind pushed me to the soft ground, and I landed in a huff. I looked up to see that my wind dragon had dispersed. _Sigh, "This is going to be harder than I thought."_ This jutsu required more chakra than what I was used to using. I nodded to myself; this was just the kind of challenge I needed to inspire me.

I looked to the other side of the lake to watch Tsubaki-chan and Hitoshi-sensei. Tsubaki-chan was facing the lake, with a hand positioned at her mouth. Within seconds, the lake was lit up beautifully with a huge fireball. Hitoshi-sensei looked impressed and walked off towards Hige-kun. Tsubaki-chan kept practicing the fireball jutsu.

I rose to my feet and began practicing my new jutsu. After about an hour, I could sustain the jutsu for around three minutes. I could get it to move as well, but not very far yet. Hitoshi-sensei began walking towards me and I got excited. I could finally show him my progress! He smiled when he saw how excited I was getting. "Okay, show me what you've worked on so far." I nodded and performed the now familiar sequence and concentrated. Surrounding my body was a giant wind dragon. It began to fly into the sky and I made it do tricks. Sensei was looking up as the dragon did flips and glided gracefully against the horizon. I could feel my control begin to slowly slip away so I had the dragon go to the middle of the lake, where it dispersed in a huge gust, creating a large, rippling wave that headed to the edge where it gently lapped against the grass. He looked at me with approval and called the others to my side of the lake. The moon had long risen in the sky, so I figured it was time to leave. "Great job today you three, you worked really hard. For the rest of this month we will be working on ninjutsu. We will also work on our stamina in the mornings until the chuunin exams begin. Now go home and get some rest, you'll need it for tomorrow." With that, we all went home for a well-earned rest.

Today is the day that marks the second month of training. I hurriedly ate breakfast and went to our training grounds, the lake. I was the last one today it seems, as my team turned their heads towards me. "Morning!" I couldn't wait to see what we'd be working on this month. "Morning. This month we'll be working on your own strengths. Tsubaki-chan, you will be focusing on genjutsu, but may incorporate other things. Hige-kun, since we focused on your strength last month I want you to spar with me for awhile, work on your taijutsu." Hige-kun nodded at this as sensei went on, "And Rei-chan, you will work on taijutsu as well. You said you had a specific kind in mind already?" "Hai sensei. It's taijutsu that was favored by my clan." He nodded at that, "Very well, when you think you have a good amount of control with it come see me." I nodded and walked to my side of the lake. I already memorized what I needed to do to control my chakra and the stances required for it to be the most effective. I slowly dropped into a relaxed stance and pulled chakra to my hands; it'd be easier if I started with one of my limbs instead of all four. Once I felt enough chakra, I added my element to it, wind, and I could see the chakra around my hands. Slowly, the chakra began to sharpen. When I felt it was done reshaping I saw that the chakra surrounded my hands in the shape of the head of a kunai. I stood still for a few minutes, memorizing how it felt to have chakra around my hands, and changed into a more aggressive stance. I began an imaginary fight, going through the different stances and attack positions I saw drawn on my clan's scroll. After a few hours of this it became second nature, and I flowed through the moves gracefully, just as my wind dragon does through the sky. I sensed someone coming from my right; my sensei. I recalled my chakra and looked over to him; he looked surprised. "That was very good Rei-chan, you've exceeded my expectations." I smiled gratefully at his compliment, and then he continued, "How did you know I was coming? You looked very preoccupied." Oh, that's what he was surprised about. "Well, I've been training my senses at night, before I go to sleep. I've learned to recognize chakra patterns from several people, mainly you, Tsubaki-chan and Hige-kun." He looked impressed again. "That's very good Rei-chan, only the most advanced ninja have learned to recognize chakra patterns." Now this surprised me, it came naturally. Then he shook his head, "Anyway, it's getting late, time to head home." I looked around and just realized that my two teammates had left already. When sensei disappeared in a puff of smoke, I walked towards my house.

For the next month we ran around the village a few times, which quickly became easy, and I would go through the moves of my clan. I sometimes sparred with Hige-kun and Hitoshi-sensei, even one on two spars at some points. The third month was quickly approaching and the three of us became even more excited and nervous, if that was possible.


	10. Chapter 9: Arrival of the Exams

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 9: Arrival of the Exams

Hitoshi-sensei gave us a week off before the exams, and now they're finally here! We worked our butts of too so you could imagine how excited and nervous we were to put our newfound skills to the test. Tsubaki-chan, Hige-kun and I walked to a room with at least a hundred seats. This was where our first exam was going to be held. I looked around and saw the genin who graduated in my class. Hige-kun walked over to his cousin, Kiba, and Tsubaki-chan and I followed after him. They chatted, somewhat loudly, but I wasn't paying attention. I was looking around at the other billions of ninja in the room. Okay, so maybe not billions, but there were a lot! "Tsubaki-chan, look at all the ninja here! There's got to be over a hundred!" She shook her head at my exaggeration, "There's not a hundred Rei-chan, but there are a lot." She seemed nervous, looking at all the kids in the room. "Don't worry Tsubaki-chan; we'll definitely beat all of them!" I assured her, and she looked over to me and smiled. Then frowned when she looked up, so I looked up to see why. Several people were either frowning or had an amused expression on their faces because of my exclamation. I just scoffed at them and roughly turned my head to the door when I heard a loud voice. Blonde hair and blue eyes, Naruto-kun obviously. A silver-haired boy walked up to Team 7 and took out a deck of cards. Curious, I walked over to see what they were. He spun one of the cards with a finger and an image of one of the ninja appeared, along with stats. Naruto-kun looked impressed with his trick, but I just scoffed at him. Honestly, anyone can gather stats on people. After that, a man with a bandana around his head walked into the room. He had many scars upon his face, suggesting grueling battles. He told us where to sit and then passed out a written test. I smirked; my team would do well on this. Hige-kun wasn't the brainiac, but he had decent test scores at the academy, so I wasn't worried. After Kristi-nee 'left' the village I became even more determined to be the best at the academy, so that one day I could track her down and convince her to return, if she was allowed. This being said, I'm definitely not worried about this test. When the proctor said to begin I picked up my pencil and began writing. The ninja were expected to cheat without being caught as the test was very difficult, but I had no need. Over the test course, several people were removed for being caught or chickening out. At the end, less than half of the starting group remained. Ibiki, the test proctor, warned us that there was a bonus question. If we got it wrong, we couldn't become a chuunin, ever. This scared a few more of the genin. I looked to my team and saw the determination in their eyes, we weren't giving up already! Then, Naruto-kun had to be the loud mouth again and talk of how he wasn't giving up because he was gonna be Hokage. The sensei looked amused. Maybe not on the outside, but I could tell from his eyes. Apparently, that was another one of the skills of my clan. With that, Ibiki said all of us remaining had passed the first exam and were told to go to the gates outside of the Forest of Death.

We all cheered of course, and left the exam room talking loudly to each other. Hitoshi-sensei took our team out for dinner, his treat of course. After dinner, we all went home to get rest before the long, second part of the exam.

I walked over to Tsubaki-chan who seemed to be the first of our team to arrive at the exam location. "Good morning Tsubaki-chan, are you excited?" "Ha, more like nervous. I mean, we're going into a place called the Forest of Death for three days!" Wow, she was nervous if she was yelling about a name. Oh well, she'll get used to the idea after we're in there for a few hours, hopefully. "Rei-chan, Tsubaki-chan, are you ready?" "Hey Hige-kun, of course we're ready!" Tsubaki-chan still looked nervous and not agreeing with my statement. I looked a few feet past Hige-kun's shoulder and said, "I'll be right back." I walked over to Sasuke-kun, who looked bored already. Seriously, that kid could look bored about anything! "Hey Sasuke-kun, are you ready for this test?" "Hn, of course I'm ready loser." I bristled at this, that little punk! "Psshh, I'd just like to know how you passed the written part. I mean, it's not like you knew anything on the test." I smirked at him, and then took on an amazed look. His eyes were swirling slowly, becoming red. The sharingan; so that's what he used to pass, cheater. "When did you obtain the sharingan?" "During a mission against an S-classed missing nin." He smirked at me and I snorted, "Whatever, don't think you're all great 'cuz you fought a missing Nin; big deal." "Don't be jealous, los-" He was cut off when the new proctor began talking. It was a female this time, with spiky blue hair. She told us to line up and retrieve a scroll of some sort. I glanced at Sasuke-kun, told him not to die, and walked back to my team. We lined up, got our scroll, and then walked to a gate. When the gates opened we rushed through and navigated our way through the trees.

"Five hours and we still haven't seen another group!" Boring, that's what this was. We were running through the trees in the Forest of Death, looking for a team that had a different scroll than us, with no luck. "Rei-chan we just have to be patient. We'll find another team soon." I looked to Tsubaki-chan. She was always so calm when I was agitated. I guess that's why we were best friends, we balanced each other. Hige-kun looked up to the now dark sky."Maybe we should find something to eat and a place where we can sleep, it's late already." I wanted to keep looking, but knew he was right. We couldn't keep going without energy and rest. We walked to where Hige-kun heard running water; a stream. He caught some fish while Tsubaki-chan lit a pile of wood that I had gathered from within the forest. After we ate Tsubaki-chan set up genjutsu traps around the camp, just as sensei taught her, and we fell asleep.

We were running for four hours when Hige-kun looked slightly to the left. "I smell a team up ahead." "Really, can you tell how far?" I asked; excitement was full in my voice. This would be our first fight since entering the forest. "About five minutes, not too far." Yes! "Okay, let's go then!" We all ran a little faster, excited for a change of pace after hours of running. It was still early in the morning, so I wasn't very surprised to see the team the Hige-kun smelled just starting to bring their camp together. The team was made up of three shinobi, male ninja. My team stayed hidden beneath the bushes. There were no water sources, so Hige-kun wouldn't be able to perform a strong water jutsu. I nodded to Tsubaki-chan, signaling that she should set up a genjutsu. Although I wanted action, I didn't want to have to waste my time if they didn't have the scroll we needed. She took my signal and set to making hand signs. After several seconds she nodded to us. We got up and walked towards the males. I walked to the one closest to us and searched the pouches on his person. He didn't hold the scroll. I walked to the next guy. I reached my hand to one of his pouches, but was forced to back flip away when I saw his arm twitch. I had barely escaped his kunai; it drew blood along my calf. I winced as I belatedly felt the pain the cut caused. _"Well, I guess this proves he's the one with the scroll."_ The others were still locked in the genjutsu. This guy was crazy to engage in battle by himself. I looked over to Tsubaki-chan. Her stamina has increased greatly due to the training we went through and she looked like she could keep the jutsu up for a while still. I nodded and looked back to my target. Hige-kun had attacked him at some point and was backing him against a tree. Hige-kun lifted a fist and punched with all his strength at the kid's head. The enemy disappeared in a puff of smoke; a shadow clone. I heard Hige-kun huff and look around. I concentrated on the sounds around me, trying to sense any movement. I heard a shuffling from behind a bush next to Hige-kun. I performed several hand signs, "Wind Dragon Jutsu." The dragon rushed towards the sound, surprising Hige-kun as it flew past him, and slammed into the hiding shinobi. Hige-kun ran towards him and bent over, taking the scroll from the unconscious boy. He turned to me and gave me his infamous, lopsided smile. I smiled back and walked next to Tsubaki-chan. I whispered to her, "We've got the scroll, set up a genjutsu that'll last a few minutes so we can get away." She nodded, telling me she heard, and set to work making another genjutsu. After that, we ran towards the center of the forest, towards our goal. We had to enter the tower with both scrolls.

We stopped running after about an hour. "Hige-kun, take the scroll out so we can make sure it's the right one." He pulled the scroll our and laid it next to ours then nodded. "Yep, looks like we got lucky, we can start making our way to the tower now." "Okay, we should leave now though. We have a deadline and don't know how far it is from here." I grimaced as I stood up. The cut on my leg reopened and caused a slight pain. Tsubaki-chan looked confused then looked to my leg, comprehension appearing on her face. "Sigh, hold on Rei-chan, and let me heal that before we go anywhere. It'll be a lot more trouble if it gets infected." I stopped moving so she could heal it. She was getting very good at medical jutsu and was working fast towards her goal as one of the best med-nins in the world. After my leg was healed, we continued on our short journey.

We arrived at the tower that night. Seems it wasn't as far as we had expected. We hadn't run into any more teams; Hige-kun's nose was a big help there. I looked at everything in the tower, slightly disappointed. It looked so, _plain_. I expected it to look more, I don't know, scary. I shrugged; well I won't be here for long hopefully so it doesn't matter. I kept walking and looked into a room on my right. I saw a young, red-haired boy sitting by himself. I was about to enter the room to say hi when he looked to me and glared. _Huh, "What did I ever do to him?"_ Forget about being nice then. I was just about to turn around and walk again when I saw him lift his hand. What is he doing, waving? "Hey, what are you doing, get away from that room!" I looked in the direction of the voice. It was a girl with blonde hair in four ponytails. She ran over and closed the door; I heard something hit the door hard seconds after she did that. So, that little brat was tryin to attack me? He better think again! "Move outta my way! That brat's gonna die for threatening me!" I reached out to open the door when I was pulled against someone's chest. "Rei-chan calm down. Don't get into a fight already." I heard Tsubaki-chan let out an exasperated sigh to my right. I looked behind me, "Hige-kun you can let me go now, I promise I won't do anything." I scowled as he let me go. Whatever, I'll get that brat later. My team and I walked to the end of the hall and hung out in one of the other rooms. We talked while we waited for the other teams to arrive; there was still one day left.


	11. Chapter 10: Preliminaries and Training

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 10: Preliminaries and Training

So, everyone gathered in the large room hidden within the tower. I looked around me and saw ten teams facing forward. That meant only half of the teams made it through the forest with both scrolls. I looked forward as the next proctor began to speak. "Well, we didn't expect this many kids to pass the two tests already. We are going to hold preliminaries to lower the numbers. You will have no time for a rest so if you are not ready leave now." He stopped talking and looked around. There were quite a few people who left. Within minutes there were twenty four kids left standing, my team included. "Very well, head up the stairs to either the left or right and we will begin momentarily." He walked to the center of the small arena and nodded to someone. The board behind him began shuffling names and everyone became silent. I looked at the board and saw two names that remained, Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado. I watched as Sasuke-kun smirked and walked confidently to the center of the battlefield. His opponent's expression was hidden behind a small fabric wrapped around the bottom half of his face. Most of my attention was on Sasuke-kun though; he seemed different for some reason. A few seconds later, he and his opponent were exchanging hits. Several minutes had passed and I still couldn't decide who the winner would be. Sasuke-kun had just kicked his opponent to the air, and then flickered beside him. _"What is that?_ I could see strange markings begin to cover Sasuke-kun, originating from his left shoulder. They were shortly pushed away and Sasuke-kun slammed his opponent to the ground, winning his fight. Kakashi took him somewhere else while the preliminaries continued. I'd look into it some more later; something was going on. Two fights later and it was my turn. Obviously my opponent would be one of my teammates.

Tsubaki-chan and I walked reluctantly to the center of the floor. I really wanted to fight, but not against my best friend. We smiled apologetically at each other and attacked as the proctor told us to begin. We were going to try our best to win, even if we were best friends. As we ran at each other, my hands began to glow with chakra. When she was close enough, I jabbed out my hand, hoping to get her in the stomach, but she evaded. I kept jabbing at her but she dodged if of my attacks; _"I should've got her with that one!"_ I know she had very good evasion skills as a medic, but that attack definitely should've touched. At that moment, I felt a slight tingling feeling in the back of my mind. I concentrated on it as she ran towards me. _"Duh, it's a genjutsu. I should've known that sooner!"_ "Release!" I opened my eyes to see that neither of us had moved. I sighed at this, hoping she wouldn't use genjutsu anymore. I ran at her, trying for a second time to use my clan's taijutsu. This time I was subjected to genjutsu, but she still managed to dodge my attacks. My chakra cut sliced her right forearm as she pulled it back from a punch. Feeling the contact, she flipped backwards, out of my reach. As her left hand took on a green glow, due to the healing chakra, I began forming hand signs, not giving her a chance to fully heal. "Fuuton: Wind Dragon Jutsu" I sent my dragon towards her, hoping to end the battle quickly. She huffed at me and ran away from it. I had the dragon follow her around the arena; she was waiting until my control broke. I practiced this jutsu for hours though; I could hold it until my chakra ran out, which I had plenty of. I sped the dragon up and it wrapped itself around Tsubaki-chan's body, trapping her. She looked slightly worried, not planning for this. I released the jutsu, the powerful gust blowing her against the nearby wall. She hit it hard. I ran at her as she began to rise. I saw that random blue flame again and I punched Tsubaki-chan in the face, hard. I looked in the direction I saw the flame as I heard her clone disappear in a puff of smoke. She was staring at me, wide-eyed. "How did you..." she stopped her sentence short. "I'll tell you later." She looked pleased at that answer and ran at me, both her hands glowing, her chakra scalpel in place. She sliced at me and I jabbed back, trying to find an opening on each other. As her right hand came at me, I ducked under and spun to her side. Right before she turned around, I swung my right hand out to the side of her neck. Within seconds she was laying on the floor, unconscious. I had hit her pressure point, effectively knocking her out. I sighed and looked as Hitoshi-sensei appeared beside us. He bent down to pick up Tsubaki-chan and we walked to Hige-kun after I was declared the winner. I collapsed as soon as I stopped walking. Hige-kun laughed at me, and then looked over to Tsubaki-chan who was now lying against the floor. "She'll wake up soon" sensei assured us.

After a few short hours, the preliminaries were over. The people who were moving on to the final exam were Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, Neji Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, Kankurou, Temari, Gaara, Shikamaru, Dosu, Hige-kun and me. We had one month to prepare for the test and I was brimming with excitement.

My team went to dinner to celebrate Hige-kun and I moving on to the final part. Tsubaki-chan was fine with not being able to move on; at least that's what she said. I told her of how I saw the blue flame again and she suggested looking in the scrolls to see if it was a clan thing. I agreed and went straight to my house after eating.

After reading through the ninjutsu scrolls, and not finding anything on a blue flame, I decided to read through the history scroll. As I reached over to grab it, I looked at the sealed scroll. I've tried opening it many times, only to end in failure. It had a picture of an ancient looking fox on the outside, but that was all I noticed of the scroll. I sighed and opened the scroll regarding my clan's history. I really hated history. Two hours into reading I saw a picture of a blue flame; it was inside a drawing of a person, where their heart was. _"Well, this explains what I was seeing." _I read the paragraph to the side of it.

_The Kitsuna Clan has the ability to look at one's aura. An aura is a person's spirit and can never be hidden or concealed like chakra. Auras are usually blue in color, but can be slightly darker, having a dark blue or purple hue to it. This darker color signals evil intent or an evil character. Auras can also range in brightness. The brighter the aura is, the healthier the owner. If it is dull, the person is most likely sick or dying. To acquire this skill, clan members trained their senses. They would train their eyes the most, however. They would train themselves so that they would be able to pick out even the slightest change of their opponents stance, breathing patterns or more. Once a member could see auras, their eyes changed to the color of their own aura, almost always blue. This is different from a bloodline trait however since it does not use chakra. It becomes similar to a natural characteristic._

Okay, guess this is the thing I'm gonna be working on for the next month. But first, it's time to go to bed, I'm extremely tired!

_**Thump Thump Thump! **_Ugh, who could that be? I don't have to meet with sensei for another; I looked over to the clock, four hours! Oh, this had better be good! I grumpily got up from my soft bed and made my way to the door, still clad in my pajamas. I wasn't changing for anybody at six o clock in the morning. I opened the door slowly and lifted my face so I could look the tall guy in the face. "What do you want?" I asked the Anbu. He tensed at my demeanor; guess I was supposed to be more polite to my 'superiors', like I care. "Hokage-sama needs to speak with you." And in a puff of smoke he was gone. I sighed as I went to get on more clothes. I respected the Hokage too much to appear in just my pajamas. I wrapped some athletic tape around my legs starting from my waist and ending to just below my knees. The wrap supported my knees during impacts to the ground when jumping. I pulled on my blue skirt after. Next, I pulled a fishnet shirt over my head. The netted sleeves barely passed over my elbows. Over that I put on my blue, over the shoulder top that matched my skirt. I pulled on my gloves and finally, tied my headband around my waist; it rested gently over my left hip. Okay, all set!

I knocked gently when I was outside of the Hokage's office. "Enter" his loud voice beckoned to me. I entered slowly and stood still when I was directly in front of his desk. "You called for me Hokage-sama?" "Ah, Rei-chan, yes I did. You are living on your own, correct?" "Hai Hokage-sama" "How are you supporting yourself?" He looked genuinely curious. "Well, Kristi-nee kept a jar of money in her room in case of an emergency. I use that and the money I earn on missions." To be honest, I was beginning to run low on money since I haven't been on a mission due to training for the exam and the exam itself. But, what did money have to do with why I was called here? "Are you aware of how big your clan was Rei-chan?" "Um, I know there were a lot, about as much as the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans, right?" I wasn't very sure since I couldn't remember many faces, but I do remember Kristi-nee saying a lot of names whenever she told me stories. "You are right, there were a lot, many more than either clan you mentioned however. And they also had a large amount of money that I held onto in case you or your sister needed it." My eyes widened at this; I wouldn't have to struggle to get by anymore. "It is yours to take of course, so do you want it?" I nodded my head, "Yes please Hokage-sama, I'm running low on money now." He nodded at me and sent for the person in charge of watching over the money. When the shinobi returned, he handed the Hokage a card. "Here you go Rei-chan, if you ever need anything, give this to the person you are paying. They will take the account number on there and tell the shinobi overlooking the money that you owe them however much." "Hai, thank you very much Hokage-sama!" "You are welcome, now I believe you have some training to do for the exam, correct?" I nodded and ran out of the room.

"_So now that I have money to spare, I think I'm gonna go shopping."_ Besides, I have an idea I'd like to try out, but I need something first. With this thought I walked into the nearest weapons store. I looked around for several minutes, but didn't find what I was looking for. I walked up to the counter, "Excuse me, do you know where I can find a, um, battle fan?" If that was what it was called. She thought about my question then smiled, "Yes, there is a small variety at the other weapons store. It's a tall building not too far from here; do you know which one I'm talking about?" Yeah, I did, and it was ten times more expensive than this place, but if what the Hokage said was true, then I should have no money issues. I nodded and left the store, a new destination in mind.

I stared up at the tall building. There were signs everywhere, advertising newly made weapons or even requests. I walked in and looked all around me. To my left was an entire section devoted to kunai and shuriken. To my right were swords, spears and even bows and arrows. The swords intrigued me, so I walked towards them, being diverted from my main goal of entering the store. I scanned the sword collections; they were locked safely within a glass case, not that the glass would be much help against someone who really wanted one of the weapons in front of me. As I was walking along the wall, looking at all the swords, an employee walked up to me, "Can I help you with anything?" He was silently criticizing me; I could tell as I looked into his eyes. Probably because I was only 13. "Actually yes" A sword had caught my attention a little while ago, but I wanted to keep looking. I hadn't found anything better yet though. I walked back to it. The wrapping around the hilt was black with blue weaved in. The sheath was a very smooth, rich black color. There were blue outlines of black foxes running against the black background. It seemed as if they were running towards the only other color on the sheath, a silver crescent moon. "Can I see that please?" I looked to the clerk as I asked. He made a face, "You're looking at it now. I don't have time to babysit kids so leave." He started to walk away and I stuck my tongue out at him. As he was leaving, an older man grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him back towards me. "I'm sorry young miss, was my worker being rude to a much valued customer?" He directed an angry look towards the young man, "Yes, but don't punish him. I would've done the same thing if I saw a kid looking around at weapons that looked too big for them. Especially in such an expensive place." I smiled sweetly at him. The guy was being rude, but I didn't want him to get fired on my behalf. "Very well," he looked to the guy he was holding, "she saved you this time, but remember to be polite to everyone. The next one might not be so nice." The young man nodded and left. "So, you said you wanted to see the sword?" I nodded. He took it out of the glass case carefully and handed it to me. I have never handled a sword before so I was kinda nervous. I gently pulled it out of the sheath to reveal the hidden blade. It was just as dark as its cover! It was beautiful. I wasn't quite used to its weight however. I went through a few kata, or sword patterns, that I saw in a scroll somewhere. I returned it to its sheath. The old man looked at me in amazement, "That was beautiful miss, ""Rei Kitsuna" I told him. His eyes widened even more. "Well, I guess it isn't so surprising after all then." I looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean, what's not surprising?" "There's a story behind that sword. It was rumored to come from a clan that descended from fox demons of ancient times; that clan being the Kitsuna. The original owner was one of the best swordsmen to ever live. He made this sword himself. I think it's only right that you, as the remaining Kitsuna, take the sword." I looked at the sword in awe; made by one of the best swordsmen ever, and he was from my clan! I felt so honored to be holding it. "How much is it?" "No charge" I looked up, very surprised. "It has to be worth a lot though; I don't want to just take it from you." "Think of it as a gift, for being so easy-going about my rude employee." I sighed, he wasn't gonna let me pay for it no matter what I said. "Okay, thank you very much for the sword!" "Not a problem Rei-san." "Please, just Rei is fine, it's not like I'm someone important. Oh, I actually came to buy a fan and I was told that you carried some. Would you mind showing them to me?" "That would be no problem at all, follow me Rei." Excited that I could possibly be getting two new weapons to master today, I followed him to the third story of the store. "These are the only fans in the store; sorry it's a bit limited." I looked at the dozens of fans. Sure, it was a smaller collection than the other weapons, but it still looked like a lot to me. I glanced at each one carefully, trying to find the perfect one. My eyes settled to one immediately. The fan was tan-gold in color with a strip of burgundy across the top. A burgundy colored dragon took up the length of the fan beautifully. It was made of tough steel, similar to kunai, so it'd withstand a decent amount of attacks; it folded easily despite being made of steel. When I finished examining it and testing its weight, which was heavy for its size, I looked up to the old man and smiled. I had just found what I was looking for. "I'll take this please, how much?" This time he gave me a price and I paid for it fully. I left the store quickly and left to meet up with my team for training. I was going to be late but oh well; I was going to be busy this month!


	12. Chapter 11: I Did It!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 11: I Did It?

"There she is, Rei, what took you so long?" Hitoshi-sensei never used honorifics when he was upset or on a mission and since we weren't on a mission I'm guessing the former one is right. "Sorry Hitoshi-sensei, but Hokage-sama called me to his office, and then I went shopping for new weapons." He looked at me, surprised. "What kind of weapons?" I unsheathed the sword, which was at my left hip, and showed him. "The old man who works at the big weapons shop gave it to me. He said it was rumored to belong to one of the more powerful people in my clan." I resheathed it and pulled my fan from its case that rested on the back of my waist horizontally. "And this is what I was looking for in the first place. I have a jutsu in mind and figured that this would be the perfect conductor!" Tsubaki-chan and Hige-kun looked at me in confusion. Sensei asked, "Perfect conductor for what?" "Well, my clan specialized in barriers, so I was thinking that I could pour my chakra into the fan, making it easier to distribute, and then keep spreading it to form a barrier." He didn't look too convinced that it would work, but let it go. "Fine, fine, but you are an hour late. I want you to run ten laps around the village. Go!" "Hai sensei!" With that I began running my laps. As I was running, I tried to notice every detail on just about everything I saw, straining my eyes in hope that I'd be able to see auras. I quickly finished my laps and returned to the lake. "Finished sensei!" I yelled. He looked over to me and called me over. I stood beside him and watched as Hige-kun used his water jutsus and Tsubaki-chan quickly dodged them. "Rei-chan, which are you practicing with first?" I thought quietly to myself, I could always work on the aura thing as I practiced the other two; it's all a matter of which is more important. I have a decent idea of how to use the sword as well; so I guess that leaves the barrier. "I'll work with the barrier and fan first sensei." He nodded, "Alright, I'll check up on you every now and then." "Okay" I walked to the other side of the lake and whipped out my fan. With a flick of my wrist it opened and I held it parallel to my chest, my right hand holding the bottom and my left hand about an inch from the fan, between me and it, palm facing outwards. I sent chakra through the fan, spreading it over the surface area. I held my chakra like that for a few minutes, getting a feel for it. When it became easy enough, I gently expanded my chakra into the surrounding air, which had also become full with my chakra since I've been adding to it. Soon, my chakra began to outline the fan and it kept increasing. Within minutes, the size of the chakra barrier had doubled and become half my size. I continued expanding it, my hands aglow with chakra, when the barrier shimmered and disappeared. My arms shook with the strain and they fell to my sides. I plopped down and looked to the sky. The sun was beginning to set, which meant I still had time. "That was very good Rei-chan. I'm impressed." "Arigatou sensei" I stood back up and tried again.

I submerged my hands in cool water and hissed. I held them there for a good half hour. When I took them out I could still see the burns. Chakra hurts very badly if used for a prolonged time. Tsubaki-chan said healing chakra burns would just make them worse, which I guess makes sense. I didn't manage to get the barrier any larger, but I can sustain it for a wider time period. I went to bed and rested for the next day's training.

For the past two weeks, training has been the same. We would show up at the lake, work by ourselves for a little while, perfecting jutsus or similar things that we had in mind, and then Hige-kun and I would spar each other. I usually ended up the winner, although he got in a few good hits every now and then. My barrier had even grown larger, about two of me. Today seemed as if there was going to be a little change. Standing next to my sensei and Tsubaki-chan, Hige-kun wasn't there yet, was a man with slightly spiky black hair. He had a cigarette in his mouth and was talking animatedly with my sensei. They seemed to stop talking as I walked closer. Hitoshi-sensei began talking to me instead, "Rei-chan, this is Asuma-sensei. I thought that he might be able to help you with something." "Help me with what, my barrier?" Maybe I'd be able to get it as wide as a building! Sensei shook his head, "No, with your sword." Oh, I guess that was good too, but I was already pretty good with my sword. "Follow me Rei-chan, I'll show you." This was Asuma-san. I nodded and followed him to where I usually trained. We stopped at the edge of the forest that surrounded the lake. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of trench knives. "I'm going to show you how you can expand your reach and increase cutting power with your sword. All you have to do is send your chakra into the weapon. Since you have wind chakra, it increases the cutting ability as well." As he said the middle part, he sent his chakra through the knives and they began to glow blue. The chakra extended the reach a good two inches. Of course I already knew how to channel my chakra since I've been doing it with my fan and using it in my taijutsu. I just never thought of using it with my sword. I pulled my sword from its sheath quickly. I held it out in front of me and could feel my chakra leave my body and enter the blade of the sword. Well, if it adds to the cutting ability; I ran forward and swung my sword gracefully towards the nearest tree. I looked over as I heard a loud crash. My sword had completely run through the tree, separating it from its bottom half. I stared at my sword in wonder; I couldn't do that before, no matter how hard I swung. "That was very good for a first try Rei-chan." "Arigatou Asuma-san!" "Have you done this before; you looked like you knew what you were doing." "Hai, I channel chakra to my hands for my style of taijutsu and I used my fan as a medium while trying to make a barrier." "Oh yeah, you did say something about a barrier didn't you. Do you mind showing me?" "Of course I don't mind!" I resheathed my sword and pulled my fan from behind my back. I flipped it open and began spreading my chakra. The barrier was slightly larger than me this time. I saw Asuma-sensei reach for one of his trench knives. He held it up then threw it slightly to the left of me. I really wasn't expecting that but I concentrated even more, trying to strengthen my barrier. The knife collided against the barrier and thumped helplessly to the grass below. "That's a very strong barrier, how long have you been working on it?" I released the barrier, "About two weeks now. It takes longer than I would like though." He nodded, "It is very good nonetheless. Keep workin' on it." I nodded. "Okay, well I've gotta get back to my team. See ya." With that, he left, leaves fluttered in the spot he had just been standing. I began practicing my barrier some more.

It's a day before the final part to the chuunin exams and I'm feelin pretty confident in myself and Hige-kun. We've practiced very hard for this and today was our only day off before the exam. I haven't been able to see any auras yet, but I did succeed in making the barrier. I can now hold it for ten minutes without tiring. Now all I have to do is rest for the exam tomorrow! Good Night!


	13. Chapter 12: A Tragedy

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 12: A Tragedy

Today was the day that I would be a chuunin. Hige-kun and I were totally pumped. I looked around to see that there were three people still missing; Sasuke-kun, Naruto-kun, and that other kid whose name isn't worth remembering. I can understand why Naruto-kun would be late, he sleeps in a lot, but Sasuke-kun is the type of person to show up just on time and he's three minutes late already. I sighed, and then turned my attention to the proctor; he was talking about something, but it didn't seem too important. _**BAM!**_ We all looked to the entrance, startled by the loud noise. It was Naruto-kun obviously, only he could make an entrance like that. He ran to stand in line next to us, panting hard. We listened to the proctor as he called out names for the first match. There was quite a commotion since Sasuke-kun wasn't there. Apparently most of the people watching were there because of his fight. They decided to give him until it was his turn to show up, proceeding with the exam.

I was watching the fight with disinterest. I really just wanted my fight to come faster. I sighed as I stared at the people fighting. It was Shikamaru versus Temari, the wind user. Shikamaru was Asuma-sensei's student. This fight was kinda boring, very thought out, which was good, but not too much action. Temari was eventually named the winner since Shikamaru forfeited because he had run out of chakra. A few minutes later was the designated time for Sasuke-kun's match. Just as they were about to disqualify him a breeze flew by the proctor and swirled with a flurry of leaves. In a matter of seconds, Sasuke-kun and Kakashi appeared, ready for the fight. I smirked; of course he had to make a flashy entrance, that little punk. Gaara, his opponent, walked down the stairs to join Sasuke-kun on the battlefield. The proctor yelled begin and disappeared to give them space. In the blink of an eye Sasuke disappeared. I quickly moved my eyes to Gaara and saw his sand rise around him. He had successfully blocked Sasuke's attacks. I averted my eyes to the wall, where Sasuke decided to get comfortable. He used his chakra to hold himself up and bent his knees slightly. He lowered his left arm and sparks started to show. I narrowed my eyes; it looked similar to what I used for my taijutsu, but on a higher scale and with lightning nature chakra. He ran down the wall at incredible speeds, sharingan activated, towards his opponent. A huge dust cloud exploded from the edge of the wall as Sasuke made contact with the ground and continued to Gaara. He flew his arm out, planning to hit Gaara. Gaara's protective sand rose immediately, but Sasuke's attack managed to break through the defense. I couldn't tell if it had actually made it to Gaara until I heard an anguished scream. After that, all hell broke loose. I looked up as I heard fighting happening above where the Hokage was sitting. The Anbu were fighting somebody and a barrier emerged on the roof. I narrowed my eyes, trying to get a better look. It seemed the Hokage was fighting someone with long black hair, a woman maybe? _"What is this?"_ I swatted at the feathers falling in front of my face. When that didn't do anything I became confused. I tilted my head to the side, _"Oh, a genjutsu, duh!" _"Kai!" With that, the feathers disappeared. I looked to the battlefield to see Sasuke-kun jump over the huge wall. I glanced at Hige-kun to see him looking at me. I sighed, "Somehow, I don't think this is gonna help us be ranked as Chuunin." He laughed at me and glanced to where the audience was seated. I looked over as well and saw a few Jounin fighting some ninja. I looked closer and saw that they were from sound, wherever that was. I moved my gaze to where Tsubaki-chan and Hitoshi-sensei were sitting. "I think they've gone outside to fight nin there." I sighed again, "I guess we should help. Let's go kick those stupid ninja outta our village!" He laughed at me again and we ran outside. I looked for any sign of the rest of my team, but didn't see them. A sound Nin jumped in front of me from... somewhere, and sliced at me with a kunai. I pulled out my sword and blocked with it. Then I thrusted it in his heart. I could hear a gurgling sound but began running again, sword in hand. I sliced through many enemies with my weapon, lit up with chakra. I learned that I could take out an extra enemy, depending on how close they were to each other. Hige-kun followed behind me with a kunai; he didn't want to waste chakra while moving. Soon we were in a forest. I slowed down somewhat, giving us time to catch our breath since it seemed there were no enemies present. "This is ridiculous, how did they all get into the village?" "I'm not sure, probably because of the exams." I huffed and continued walking, my sword still held tightly. Hige-kun was walking beside me. I saw the blue flame again and looked to my right, past Hige-kun and saw a slight glint. It was a kunai. I rushed over and sliced at the tree where the kunai was hidden. The tree fell in two along with the person who held the deadly weapon. Hundreds of kunai were thrown at Hige-kun and me within seconds. We dodged them as fast as we could, but still managed to get hit. We were surrounded it seemed. My eyes flitted around the immediate area but I couldn't see anything. I looked to Hige-kun and he seemed to trying to find them as well, but it was like they were everywhere! I strained my eyes to see more clearly. "This is so annoying. Come out and fight like men! Cowards!" I tried to provoke them, but they still kept throwing the sharp weapons. I winced as I was struck on my side. I looked in the direction the weapon was thrown and saw a blue flame. And suddenly, my world was enveloped in blue flames; everywhere I looked I saw them. They were behind every tree trunk, in every branch, everywhere! I could see the outline of people. We were too outnumbered. I sheathed my sword and pulled out my fan. "Hige-kun, come closer to me." He did as I said and had his back to mine. I began my barrier. This time, however, I curved it. This was something new to me, so it took up more time. The barrier had already covered my front, making it easier for Hige-kun to block the oncoming kunai. The barrier soon fell over Hige-kun as well and touched the ground, becoming a bubble of chakra around us. I concentrated on it, not letting up; if I did, we were dead. "Hige-kun, water jutsus!" I could feel him nod and heard the crashing of water. My eyes were shut tight in concentration so I couldn't see anything. I trusted Hige-kun to protect me, or at least let me know, if anything had gotten through the barrier. I heard screams as his jutsus made contact with the enemy; it seemed they had come out of hiding. It was nearing ten minutes and my control was beginning to waver, but we still had about twenty Nin surrounding us. A third of them were taken out already. "Hige-kun, it's falling!" I was panicking now. "Calm down Rei-chan, we can handle this!" I nodded my head. "Lower your barrier and stay on guard. Don't let it eat all of your chakra." "Okay." It vanished within seconds and my sword was already at the ready. I looked around and attacked the nearest flame. I fed my sword chakra and it sliced through like butter. I stared straight ahead as I saw blue flame coming in our direction. I could feel the power that emanated from it and ran towards Hige-kun. "Hige-kun, something's coming and it's really powerful. We won't stand a chance if it attacks us!" His eyes widened but continued hacking away at the enemy. I huffed in annoyance and worry. We were gonna die, and before I even got to be a chuunin! It wasn't fair! I sliced at the person coming at me. "Rei-chan, move!" Hige-kun sounded desperate, wait, what? I looked behind me to see an enemy's sword already three inches above my head. I only had enough time to shut my eyes and scream. "Can you stop yellin girl, you're killing my ears!" I looked up slowly to see a frog in front of me. It was about my size and wearing armor. "Who are you?" I looked over and saw a man twice my size. He had long gray hair tied in a low pony tail and wore red clothing with fishnet underneath. "You don't know who I am? I am the great Toad Sage Jiraiya!" He did some weird pose thing and I laughed at him. "What are you laughing at kid; I just saved you and your boyfriend's life!" I scowled, "He's not my boyfriend. And thanks, I guess" I mumbled that last part and then looked at my surroundings. It was true, dead bodies were laid out everywhere. It must've taken him a few seconds to kill all of them! That's amazing! As my gaze moved around I noticed that the blue flames had dulled to a gray-blue color and shrank; no life to it at all. I looked to Hige-kun who hadn't said anything yet. He normally would've said that I was denying it and that I actually was in love with him. His head was bowed down; something was wrong. "Hige-kun, what's wrong? We're alive, you should be happy!" I smiled at him when he looked up. "Yeah, but if it wasn't for him, you'd be dead now and it would've been all my fault." Oh, that's what's bothering him. "Hige-kun, I'm not dead so there's nothing to worry about." He started to open his mouth to fight me but I beat him to it, "I'm not gonna keep going back and forth with you on this, besides, there are more important things to worry about, like getting rid of these sound ninja." I looked to the Jiraiya, "So I've got some questions for you, but I'll ask them later." I ran off, "Come on Hige-kun, we've got a village to protect!"

It's been an hour since the forest incident and we were back on the streets of the village. We managed to kill quite a few enemies but it didn't seem as if it was making a difference. We were running across the rooftops; it made it easier to see around us. I saw Tsubaki-chan up ahead, fighting a group of ninja, sensei nowhere in sight. I sped up, "Hurry up Hige-kun, Tsubaki-chan is by herself!" This worried me. She was strong, but so were these ninja, and she was outnumbered. I was about fifty feet away when a group of ninja surrounded me and Hige-kun. They were formed in a circle around us and charged at the same time. "Duck!" I yelled to Hige-kun. He did and I held out my sword and swung in a circle, cutting all of the enemy nin. There were about three left standing. "Go to Tsubaki-chan, I can handle the rest." I nodded and made my way towards her. My eyes widened, an enemy had a sword aimed at Tsubaki-chan's back. If it pierced her, it would cut through to her heart. "Tsubaki-chan run!" I ran even faster trying to reach her in time. The sound Nin grinned sadistically and the sword was thrust through her back before she could lift a foot. "TSUBAKI-CHAAANNNN!" I screamed as loud as I could. When I got to where she was I jabbed my sword into the ninja's stomach and forced the sword up. It cut diagonally up to his shoulder. The ninja fell to the ground in a heap. I fell to my knees next to my dying best friend. She was smiling up to me. "Tsubaki-chan what are you doing? Don't smile, heal yourself!" I commanded her. She shook her head at me. "Congratulations Rei-chan, your eyes are finally blue." My eyes widened at this. "You shouldn't be congratulating me, you should be healing yourself." I said through sobs. "I can't, I don't have any chakra" she stopped to take in a shaky breath, "besides, an injury to the heart is too difficult for me to heal at my level. Tsunade-sama might've been able to; she's the best medical ninja in the world." She said this all in a whisper and with admiration when mentioning the lady known as Tsunade. I knew she was dying, I could see her bright blue flame begin to dull, just like the life in her eyes. "Tsubaki-chan, you know you're my best friend, right?" she nodded. I cried even more. She pulled me down into a tight hug. I saw her other arm reach out beyond me. I jerked my gaze up, expecting an enemy, but seeing Hige-kun, who was also crying silently. She pulled him down as well and gave us both our final hugs. I gripped her, thinking that she wouldn't let go as long as I didn't. This was a childish concept however. After a few seconds her grasp slackened. I cried even harder if that was possible and felt another piece of my heart break. I hadn't felt this bad since learning my sister had left me alone in the village. I gently rose and looked down at her. She had a peaceful, knowing smile on her face. Suddenly, I felt a blinding white rage. I was angry that my sister left me; angry that these ninja had the nerve to enter my village and destroy everything; angry that they killed my best friend; and finally, angry at myself that I wasn't strong enough to prevent any of it from it ever happening. The wind was blowing fiercely around me, whipping my hair in front of my face. I turned to the enemy ninja who took their time, recovering their lost breath from previous fights. I glared at them and unsheathed my sword. I was going to kill all of them. I sent chakra to my feet and pushed of the ground, propelling myself forward, looking as if I was gliding across the ground; as if the wind was helping me forward and aiding me in killing the evil that had killed my best friend. I swung my sword forward, sending out chakra in the process. The result was a wave of pure energy, chakra, and it sliced through about ten of the enemy ninja, leaving them in two halves. I turned to my left and chased down the ones who were running, scared. I cut them down as well, this time not using any chakra, it had run low. I changed my direction to the next group that was trying to escape. I ran after them, faster than I ever had. They were just within my grasp as my arms were folded against my sides. I struggled against the person who held me, "Let me go, I'm gonna kill em!" I was about to change my grasp on the sword and plunge it into the person's heart when I heard a familiar voice, "Shhh, it's alright, you already killed the one who did it. More bloodshed isn't going to help anything, they're leaving." My shoulders slumped, along with my body. I leaned all of my weight against Hige-kun, releasing all of my anger and sadness into tears. I put my arms around him for support, needing the familiarity. He just held me, not saying anything. The last thing I remember were my eyes beginning to droop and blackness overcoming me.

I flew forward and immediately regretted it. My head hurt, actually, my entire body hurt. I looked around the room and all I saw was white. I was in the hospital. Then, memories from, what I guessed was the previous day, sprang into my head. Hoping it was just a nightmare, I flew to my feet and ran out of the room, looking for Hige-kun. I went to the front desk, "Excuse me, I need to find Hige Inuzuka. Is he here?" "I'm sorry; you should be in your room resting. Here, I'll help you back." She got up and grabbed my shoulders, trying to guide me back to my room. I shoved her off roughly. "I said I need to find Hige Inuzuka. Either you'll tell me, saving me from walking all over the place, or you don't. Either way I'm not going back to my room!" I was getting loud now. She looked kinda scared but I didn't care. I was getting angry and desperate. She sighed, "Right this way" She led me down several hallways and past many more rooms. Finally we stopped at a door. She opened it and we walked in. My gaze drifted immediately to the bed. All I could see was the white comforter and a small bush of brown, spiky hair. I gave a small smile and walked forward. "He's sleeping, please don't disturb him." I turned to glare at the nurse. She had better stop talking to me like a child; I was 13 years old for heaven's sake! "I know, I'm not going to wake him up. You can leave now." I sat down in a chair opposite the bed and watched over him. She looked to me but didn't say anything more. I sighed and moved the chair closer to the bed. I leaned my head on the comforter beside him and drifted to sleep.

I woke up and sat forward, the fluffy comforter falling to my lap. I stretched my arms above my head and decided to keep them down; that had hurt really badly. _"Wait, comforter?"_ I looked to my left and saw that my and Hige-kun's positions had switched. He must've moved me while I was sleeping. I smiled fondly and ran my fingers through his hair lightly, trying not to wake him. I sat like that for a while, until he started to stir. My hand quickly returned to my side. He sat up and looked to me; then he gave his lopsided smile. "Good to see you're up Rei-chan." I nodded, "You too." We were quiet for a few minutes, not sure what to say. "Um, did it really happen?" I asked in a small voice. I didn't want to ask, but needed to know. He nodded and my eyes had tears immediately. "Please don't cry, I'm not good with tears." I looked over to him and tried to stop. I sniffled a few times but had stopped the oncoming tears. He nodded at that, "How do you feel? You went on a huge rampage." "Eh, okay I guess. Not as bad as I would've thought. You?" He shrugged his shoulders. "I can move I guess. The memorial services are tomorrow morning." I tilted my head. "Memorial services for what? Tsubaki-chan?" My voice trembled when I said her name. "Yeah, but not just her. A lot of people were lost, including Hokage-sama." My eyes widened, I wasn't expecting him to die too. He was supposed to be one of the best Hokage's, besides the Fourth. "What time?" I wanted to be there for them, even if I would start bawling. "Seven a.m." I nodded at that, I'd be up. "Where's sensei? I haven't been up very long but it seems you have more information than me for once." I smirked at him, but it soon fell as his expression looked saddened. "He was taken out by one of the Jounin level sound Nin. He was already slow with blood loss." I could feel the lump in my throat and tried my best not let tears show. I nodded but didn't say anything. We sat like that for a little while, in silence.

It was seven a.m. and just about all the mobile ninja in the village were dressed in black to show their grief. I was struggling to hold back tears. I had lost my Hokage, sensei, and my best friend. I was a wreck inside. My eyes were turned down as people spoke of their loved ones. I only looked up when it was my turn to walk and put my flower on the table in front of the Hokage's photo.

After the services I walked to the Yamanaka flower shop. I was actually surprised that they were open on this day. I went in and looked around. When I didn't see what I was looking for I walked up to the counter and saw Ino Yamanaka. We hadn't really talked much. She looked at me but didn't glare or anything; she actually kinda sad. She must've had an idea of why I was there. "I'm sorry about Tsubaki-chan. She was a great person and ninja." I nodded at her and tried to calm myself. "Yeah, she was. Do you have a lotus flower?" That was Tsubaki's favorite flower. She said it symbolized creation, afterlife, and health, among others. "Yeah, we keep them in the back since they're so rare." She left to retrieve the flower. When she came back, I gave her the card so she could gather the money from the correct guard and I left. I slowly made my way to the memorial stone. There were a few people there to pay their respects. The stone served as a memorial to all those who risked their lives for the village. I looked to the stone and saw my sensei's and best friend's names written on the second to last line carved within the stone. My eyes teared up again as I gently placed the flower onto the ground before the stone. I kneeled down and clasped my hands, as if in prayer, which I was. I asked the Kami's to keep Tsubaki safe and treat her well, as well as my sensei. Then I began talking to Tsubaki-chan as if she were really there. I told her how much I missed her and then reminisced on the things we did together; like the pranks we played on Hitoshi-sensei, the games we played, sleepovers we had, and the one time she told me I should go out with Hige-kun on one date, give him a chance is all. She said he had never chased after someone so determinedly. I just told her that it was probably because he saw me all the time so it was easier than going out of his way. We laughed at this and continued talking about unimportant things. When I looked up through blurry eyes, I saw that the sun was setting. I turned to Hige-kun who had walked up at some point and hugged him tightly. I didn't want him to leave me too. He was the last of my close friends. He walked me to his house. He lived with his cousin, Kiba, and his mom and sister. They let me stay the night, sending me worried glances. I went straight up to the guest room and fell asleep.

After that day, I wouldn't talk to anybody unless absolutely necessary. The only one who heard my voice on the rare occasion that I would say something was Hige-kun. He would follow me everywhere, afraid that I would do something to harm myself. I stayed at his house; his family had insisted. I visited Tsubaki's 'grave every day, sometimes two or three times a day. I would talk to her then too, but that was about all the talking I did. I drifted away from just about everybody. I also promised myself that I would never let anybody see my tears again. I guess you could say Tsubaki-chan's death was very hard on me.


	14. Chapter 13: New Goals

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 13: New Goals

My head jerked up from where I was sitting at the restaurant; Hige-kun insisted that we stop and eat, trying to get me to talk. I nodded and here we were. What I heard had my blood running cold. Sasuke was in the hospital. Apparently he heard rumors that his brother, Itachi, was in the area and ran after him, intent on avenging his clan. Sasuke didn't escape in very good condition. Hige-kun looked at me, and then followed my gaze to the people talking. He heard what they were talking about, "How about we go visit him when we're done eating?" I nodded and ate quickly. I had questions for Sasuke.

Hige-kun walked over to the front desk as we entered the hospital. He asked where Sasuke's room was but a familiar voice said that he could not receive any visitors. I looked over and recognized the woman as the one who was working when I was at the hospital a few months ago, asking for Hige-kun's room. I walked up and she turned her gaze to me. Her eyes widened at recognition then told us where we could find his room. She wasn't too good at her job if she allowed people to enter where they shouldn't just because they glared at her. I shook my head but followed Hige-kun all the same. We turned a corner and saw Anbu guarding a door down the hall. Guessing that was his room, we walked to where they were standing. "I'm sorry but you are not permitted to enter this room. Please leave." They said this at the same time in a commanding voice, expecting us to leave. I glared at them and Hige-kun looked to me, saying sorry with his eyes. Just as he was about to turn around to leave I opened my mouth for the first time in awhile. "I don't believe we asked if we were permitted. So if you don't mind I'd appreciate it if you moved aside." I said this calmly, the anger hidden behind my voice. I hated it when people said I couldn't do something. "No, you must leave right away." Hige-kun had walked back at this point; his eyes opened wide in surprise, but was smiling at me nonetheless. "Come on Rei-chan, they're Anbu, they outrank us." I glared at him, "I'm not leaving just because they outrank me Hige-kun! I have questions that need answered and I want them now! They're not going to stop me!" I turned back to the guards, "Let me in, now!" They tensed their shoulders; I guess not expecting me to fight back. "You cannot enter, leave." Okay, this was going nowhere. Just as I was about to try to push through them, the door opened. A rough-looking Sasuke was standing under the doorframe, looking angry. "I can't have a healing sleep if you keep yelling loser." I glared at him, "I have to ask you something Sasuke." He looked surprised at the lack of an honorific. "Let them in." The Anbu looked uneasy but did as they were told.

"I've heard you two have been hanging out a lot recently." Sasuke looked to us, and then settled his gaze on Hige-kun; it was a subtle warning to him not to do anything. I shook my head. Then he moved his eyes to me. "How are you doing?" "I'm fine, but I do believe I'm the one that had questions." My tone was even. He sighed and nodded. "Is Itachi the one who did this to you?" His eyes hardened at that; that was a definite yes. "Who was he with?" This is the question I really wanted to ask. Sasuke sighed at this. "He's partnered with a giant blue man. His name is Kisame Hoshigaki. I didn't see Kristi anywhere." It was my turn to sigh this time. That didn't mean anything; she left with Itachi, she's probably still with him. "They're in Akatsuki, right?" His nod confirmed this. That gave me an idea where to start looking for them. I didn't want to bug her about coming back home if she didn't want to return, I just wanted to know _why_ she did it. Killed the Uchiha clan. I rubbed my face and leaned back in my chair. "So, what have you been up to these last couple of months?" I asked him. This got us started into several stories. He told me about his training, fight with Gaara, how Naruto beat him, and a lot more. Then, he asked me and I just told him of how I trained and visited Tsubaki every day. Hige-kun told that today was the first day I talked since the memorial services and Sasuke's eyes widened slightly at this. Then he teased me, asking how I managed to stay quiet with my loud mouth. We all laughed and had fun, like we used to. Then he told us how Naruto left with Jiraiya to find Tsunade. They hoped that she'd be able to fully heal him and Kakashi who was still knocked out after encountering Itachi's Mangekyou sharingan.

It was about a month when Naruto arrived back in the village with two of the legendary sannin; Jiraiya and Tsunade. Tsunade healed Kakashi and Sasuke. Both had to remain in the hospital for at least a week. I laughed at Sasuke when I found out about this, he wasn't too happy. I was talking more often although I still didn't laugh as much as I used to. Hige-kun and I were on our way to the hospital when I saw Sakura. "Hey Sakura, what's wrong?" I asked as I saw her. She looked angry and sad. "Sasuke-kun and Naruto got in another fight." I scowled, Sasuke was supposed to be resting. I shook my head, "I'll go yell at him for you." She smiled at that but shook her head. "You won't find him; Kakashi-sensei took him somewhere to talk." I gave a small smile at this and Hige-kun laughed. Sasuke wouldn't like that; he wasn't a big fan of talking and I had a pretty good idea that Kakashi knew that too. Then I remembered something. "That's fine. Tsunade is the new Hokage, isn't she?" Sakura nodded her head, "Yeah, I think she's at the tower now. You haven't met her yet?" I shook my head, "Nope but I heard she's got a pretty nasty temper." Sakura laughed, "She does. But she's not so bad." "Kay, I guess we'll be going now. Bye Sakura." We parted ways then, Hige-kun following me. "Hige-kun, you know you don't have to follow me, right?" He smiled, "Yeah, but I want to." I smiled and looked forward, towards Hokage tower. Standing outside the door, I knocked. "Come in!" I entered at the feminine voice's command. Hige-kun followed behind me and shut the door. Behind the desk sat a young looking blonde woman. She wore a green jacket over a gray colored shirt that revealed way too much cleavage. I looked over to Hige-kun but he was behaving. He had his eyes in my direction. I smiled at him and looked forward. "Did you two need something?" I shook my head, "Not really, I just thought that we should meet the new Hokage. I hope you're not busy." I told her and I noticed to her left stood another woman holding a pig. She had short, black hair and dark eyes. I moved my gaze to Tsunade, "No, I'm not busy at the moment." She moved a pile of papers to the edge of her desk as she said this. I grinned at this; she didn't seem to like paperwork very much. I bowed to her, "Tsunade-sama, my name is Rei Kitsuna and this is my friend and remaining teammate Hige Inuzuka." Hige-kun bowed with me, showing our respect. "You know, I'm kinda glad we've got a female Hokage this time. Some of these guys think kunoichi are under them because we're female. Maybe having a female Hokage will prove something to them." She smiled at me. Then she stood and held out a hand. "I think I'm gonna like you Rei Kitsuna." I took her hand and we shook them. "This is my assistant Shizune." "Nice to meet you Shizune-san." "You as well Rei-chan." I turned back to Tsunade, "I'd also like to thank you for healing Sasuke and Kakashi. I'd like to thank you as well Shizune-san. I heard you helped with the healings. Arigatou." They nodded. "Please have a seat you two." We sat down and talked with the new Hokage and her assistant for awhile; until a ninja came in with a report on their mission. We left, saying our goodbyes, and made our way back to the streets. Hige-kun walked me to my house; I decided I could live by myself without worrying anybody. We said goodbye and he left as I walked inside.

The next morning, Hige-kun came by my house and we left to visit Tsubaki. After that, we ate and went to the archives. I hoped to find something that would inform me on the skills of Tsunade and Shizune. I was curious as to the fighting styles of them. It took around an hour, but Hige-kun found them. We opened the book. It explained that both were excellent medical ninja, Tsunade being the best in the world and Shizune being a close second. Tsunade's battle style reflected her excellent chakra control; she could create craters in the ground by summoning a small amount of chakra to her fist and releasing it in an instant into the ground. Apparently her strength was infamous. Shizune's style differed a lot. Shizune relied on her speed during battle instead of raw power. She also had a great knowledge on poisons. _ Hmm, that was interesting._ The books were put back after they were read and we left. "I wish I could see them in battle." I told Hige-kun. "Yeah, that'd be fun to watch." I nodded as we kept walking. We went to the lake and sat there for a few hours, just talking. We weren't really in the mood for training; it wasn't the same without the rest of our team. I looked to the right as a tall figure appeared. We stood up immediately when we realized it was an Anbu. "Hokage-sama requests your presence in her office." "Hai." He left just as soon as he arrived. We made our way to Tsunade's office quickly. When we entered the room my gaze immediately went to the green vest standing in front of the desk. He had a bandana wrapped around the top of his brown, straight hair and a senbon hanging from his mouth. "You called for us Hokage-sama?" I looked to her as Hige-kun spoke. "Yes, I am sending you on a mission with Genma as the leader. You will be sent to Wind Country in order to form an alliance with the Kazekage, Gaara." My eyes widened at this; Gaara was the new Kazekage? That was a surprise. "It shouldn't be too hard; Genma should be able to handle it on his own. You two are going just in case he runs into trouble on the way. You leave immediately." "Hai!" We went home to pack enough stuff for about a week and a half and left after we met at the west gate of the village.

It had taken three days to get to Suna, the sand village, and three days to return. We were in the village for a good four days Genma had to negotiate on a few things to get the best out of the peace treaty and alliance. Overall the trip wasn't too eventful. We didn't run into any enemy Nin or rogue bandits or anything of the sort. We made our way straight to Hokage tower when we returned in order to give our report. When we got there, however, the lady at the front desk said that Tsunade and Shizune were at the hospital, healing several genin that were seriously injured during a mission. All three of us made our way to the hospital then; we Hige-kun and I had a feeling that they were the genin we went to the academy with. As we walked through the sliding doors of the hospital we could see nurses running everywhere; buzzing around like flies. Some were carrying bandages; others had bowls of water or towels. Hige-kun and I looked at each other. Something very bad must have happened. I walked up to the front desk. The lady behind it looked calm. "Excuse me, but what has happened?" She looked up at me, "Several genin were sent on a retrieval mission. All of them came in badly injured." "Who were the ones on the mission?" I asked impatiently. I needed to know if any of my friends were hurt. She looked annoyed but told me anyway, "Choji Akimichi, Kiba Inuzuka, Neji Hyuuga, Naruto Uzumaki and their chuunin leader, Shikamaru Nara." My eyes widened. Kiba-kun and Naruto-kun were injured on this mission? But then my eyes narrowed in suspicion. This was a tough group and it was just a retrieval mission. "What were they retrieving?" She looked surprised at this. I guess it was supposed to be well known. "They were sent to bring Sasuke Uchiha back to the village." My eyes widened at this too. Sasuke left? I really needed to talk to Tsunade. I sighed and turned around. "We'll come back tomorrow when it's not as busy." I nodded at what Hige-kun said and we walked home.

We went to Hokage tower the next morning. We still had to turn in our reports. After we handed them to Tsunade I asked her what had happened in the week and a half that we had been gone. She said that after the fight between Sasuke and Naruto, Sasuke had left with four ninja from Sound. He was going to receive training so he could gain enough power to kill his brother. This made me angry. First of all he shouldn't want to kill his only blood relative, especially without knowing the circumstances behind his actions. I know Itachi-nii wasn't the type of person to murder his entire clan to 'test his strength'. And secondly, who would want to go to that ugly snake? So anyway, Sakura had run into Sasuke when he was walking towards the gate to leave. He knocked her out and left her on a bench. She ran straight to the Hokage after waking up. Tsunade couldn't afford to send any higher ranking ninja, so she sent the best genin after him. The team managed to defeat their opponents, but had a few scars to show for their fights. That was why they were all in the hospital. After Tsunade explained this we went to the hospital to visit Kiba-kun. I was thinking about visiting Naruto too, decided against it after Tsunade said he was in the worst shape. I didn't want to chance waking him up. We talked until the sun set and went home.

It's been two weeks since Sasuke left the village. Jiraiya had asked Naruto-kun to accompany him on his journey. Naruto agreed of course when Jiraiya said he'd be training him to be the most powerful ninja in the village. They left a few days ago. Naruto leaving in order to train had inspired me to step up my training as well. I asked Shizune if she would train me in the art of medical ninjutsu. I wanted to be able to heal all of my friends; I didn't want to lose anyone close to me ever again. Sakura had the same idea as me. She asked Tsunade if she could be her apprentice. Tsunade agreed and Sakura was ecstatic. It seemed as if everyone's goals had changed; besides Naruto's of course, he just added on. My new goal was to make a name for myself; become the strongest kunoichi who could heal anything. Sakura's was to become an accomplished medic and become strong enough to bring Sasuke back. Only time would tell who would accomplish their goals.


	15. Chapter 14: Time Changes Everything

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 14: Time Changes Everything

Naruto-kun is supposed to return to the village today! It's been two years since he's left and some things have changed. Everybody I went to the academy with have been promoted to chuunin. Neji, Hige-kun and I have been promoted to Jounin. Sakura has become the medic she aspired to be. It's rumored that she could possibly surpass Tsunade herself soon. I believe it. Hige-kun can now use all of his water ninjutsu without a water source. He pulls the water from the surrounding air to amplify his jutsu. Oh, and Kakashi has managed to acquire the Mangekyou with his sharingan, don't ask me how though. As for me, I have perfected my taijutsu, wind jutsus, and the barrier. I can 'walk on air' now too. It was actually easy to do after I did it the first time. All I had to do was pull the chakra that I released into the air, to my feet and I use that as a sort of surface. I can efficiently see and read auras. I can determine how far someone is by looking at it and how their health is, which assists me in healing. The training with Shizune increased my speed tenfold, which makes me the fastest Nin in Konoha. I even came up with a jutsu that's similar to the Fourth Hokage's signature jutsu. He would use special kunai and could teleport to the exact location the kunai was thrown. My jutsu is similar in that it allows me to teleport, but I don't use kunai. I just send my chakra through the air to the location I want to be. I can only go however far my chakra allows me though; the larger amount I have, the further I can go. Oh, and I can summon foxes. I found the summoning scroll on my clan's abandoned property.

Hige-kun and I are dating now. It kinda just happened. We were already going everywhere together since Tsubaki-chan passed away, so we said "Why not make it official?" We didn't really change our behavior, just holding hands, his hand around my waist, or kisses here and there. Currently we were just walking around the village, his hand around my waist. He got very possessive too. He'd start making some type of growling sound that only a guy could make whenever a guy looked in my direction. I jerked my head to the right; I had seen two large blue flames out of the corner of my eye. I narrowed my eyes so I could see slightly further. I grabbed Hige-kun's hand and ran in that direction. He was finally home, I yelled out as I saw a head of spiky blonde hair, "Naruto-kun!" I kept running, let go of Hige-kun's hand at the last second and hugged Naruto. I missed his cheerfulness; so did everyone else. He hugged me back. After a few short seconds we parted and I stood next to Hige-kun who was scowling in Naruto's direction. I shook my head at him, "Hige-kun be nice, I was happy to see Naruto-kun. Jeez, you're too possessive." Naruto looked at us wide-eyed. I smiled brightly at him, "Naruto-kun, you've grown so tall! You're as tall as Hige-kun now and he's two years older!" It was true, both stood a head taller than me now; Hige-kun was 17 now, Naruto-kun 15, and I was 16. He gave his shy smile, "You think so? It looks like a lot has changed since I left." He looked towards Hige-kun's hand on my waist. I smiled again, "Yep, things change after two years Naruto-kun. How was your training?" His smile got brighter, "It was great! I bet I can even beat Kakashi-sensei!" I laughed at that, he got excited easily. "So what rank are you guys now?" He looked curious. "Hige-kun and I are Jounin. You're not the only one who's gone through some serious training." "Really? You two are Jounin already?" I nodded, "Yep, Neji-kun is too." He scowled at that; he probably had something against him still after hurting Hinata like he did. I wonder if Naruto knew Hinata love him; probably not. "Naruto, we've got to let Tsunade know we're back." I looked over to Jiraiya. He didn't look too different from the last time I saw him. "I guess we'll let you go then Naruto-kun. Make sure to see Sakura-chan before you go home, she's been worried about you." He nodded and they left.

Hige-kun and I went to the lake, our permanent training spot. We sparred for a few hours and then made our way to his house. His aunt, Tsume Inuzuka, invited me over for dinner. I loved being with his remaining family, they were so much fun. After dinner, Hige-kun walked me home. We sat and talked for awhile, then he went home and I went to bed.

We entered the Hokage's room when permitted. Hige-kun and I were there for our mission. We never did gain another team member, Hige-kun and I were more than capable of taking on any mission and completing it with just the two of us, no matter what rank. We soon were being recognized as one of the best teams in Konoha. "Hello Tsunade-sama, we are here for our mission." I said as I rose from my bow. "Ah, right. Hmm…" She rummaged through some mission scrolls. "Here you go. It's an A-ranked mission. You leave as soon as you are packed." I nodded and followed Hige-kun out the door. I opened the scroll as he opened the door to my home. We sat on the couch, "Okay, so it seems we're being bounty hunters this time. We have to find Masanori Hashimoto." I scoffed at his name; he obviously wasn't a model of justice if he was an A-class missing Nin. I heard Hige-kun scoff lightly as well. "I picked up a piece of cloth that fell from the scroll. "He shouldn't be too difficult to find if this is definitely his." At this I began packing some things and Hige-kun went home to pack as well. We met at the east gate in thirty minutes.

I pushed the sleeve of my left arm up to my shoulder to reveal a complex series of markings. The kanji for fox was in the center of the under part of my forearm. Surrounding the kanji were dark black lines that formed swirling shapes. This design covered up most of my forearm. I wore a one sleeved, dark purple shirt. The one sleeve was over my left arm, obscuring the tattooing of my summoning jutsu. It was loose, enabling me to easily push it up. On the back of my shirt was my clan symbol, the crescent moon with a fox paw to the right of the crescent, in the curved part. They were colored in dark blue and had a thick, black outline. My pants black in color and were of baggy material, similar to TenTen's old pair, and became tighter at my ankles so they would not get caught on any stray object. On the side of each pant leg was the same night scene that was on my sword. The silver crescent moon rested just below my hip and the black foxes, outlined in blue, ran towards the moon. I also carried a medical pouch with me; it rested on my right hip while my, now dark purple headband, rested on the left. My sword was tucked under my headband, hanging lazily at my hip. My fan still rested against the small of my back horizontally. I looked to Hige-kun. He still wore his light brown hair kinda long; slightly longer than Kiba-kun's. He wore a steel, fishnet looking armor, over a black, short sleeved shirt. He wore the uniform pants of a Jounin, but in a gray color instead of navy. His kunai pouch was strapped to his right thigh. He smiled at me when he saw me looking in his direction. I smiled back; my eyes were pulled to his headband, it was tied loosely around his neck. But that isn't what caught my attention. His favorite color being orange, he decided to buy a slightly dark, orange-colored fabric for his forehead protector. That was probably the most colorful thing he wore. "Are you ready?" I nodded at his question and bit my thumb. I dragged the bleeding appendage over my 'tattoos' and began performing many hand seals. I slammed my hand to the ground and two foxes appeared at my feet. Their coloring was the same as regular foxes; one male and one female. The male, Katsu, had a bandana with the Kitsuna symbol wrapped around his neck loosely. The female, Kitsa, didn't need one. The front of her chest was all white except for the center. There, red fur had grown into the shape of the Kitsuna symbol. I bent my knees so I could be at the same level as them, "Kitsa, Katsu, I need you to remember this scent. Tell me if you pick it up while we're running." They nodded, "Hai Kitsuna-sama!" I scowled at them, "I told you guys that you didn't have to be so formal, I'm not very important." "Of course you are," Kitsa began, "you are our mistress." Katsu finished for her. They did that a lot, finishing each other's sentences. I sighed, and then thought of something. "Okay then, as your mistress I am demanding that you refer to me as just Rei." I smirked at them. "Hai Kits-, Rei" They corrected themselves at the same time. When I first summoned them, they explained that they could read each other's minds, which is what I tried to get my clones to be able to do. I was still working on it after a year. After that, we ran to the east. Masanori was last seen near the eastern border of fire country. It would take us at least three days to reach the border if we ran all day and most of the night.

We've been running for a day and a half with still no sign of Masanori. "Not yet Rei, sorry." I nodded at Kitsa. "It's starting to get dark; we should find a good place to camp soon." "Alright Hige-kun, we'll stop in the next clearing." We set up camp fifteen minutes later; we had a fire burning, and nine fish cooking. After we ate Hige-kun sat against a tree, his back resting against it. I curled up in his lap, my head leaning against his chest and drifted off to sleep. We began running again in the morning.

Kitsa and Katsu made a sharp left five feet in front of me. I turned to follow them; seems they caught on to Masanori's scent finally. The two foxes slowed down as Hige-kun and I caught up. Katsu turned to me, "He's about fifty feet away and I hear two voices with him." Hige-kun nodded at this. I looked in Masanori's direction and saw three flames, two blue and one a sinister looking blue. The sinister one was slightly larger than the other two, telling me that there were two children with him. "He's got two children with him." Hige-kun nodded again, "Yeah, I can tell from their voices. There's a young girl and a slightly older boy; siblings most likely. The boy is yelling at Masanori, telling him to stay away; we'd better hurry." I ran as soon as he said this and rushed into the clearing. I held my hand in front of me and summoned a barrier, blocking the kunai aimed at the boy's head. I no longer need my fan to make a barrier, although it is more powerful. I glanced at the children out of the corner of my eye; the boy looked to be around fourteen, two years younger than me. The girl was a lot younger, closer to five. She had some scrapes here or there, but nothing fatal. I then looked to the boy. My nose caught the scent of copper so I assumed it was him who had the worst injuries. I was right; his right arm had a long gash running from his shoulder to his elbow. The left side of his shirt was slowly turning red where a cut was. He had a busted lip and black eye. I looked over to Masanori then, studying him. He didn't look too bad, a few bruises here and there but no open cuts. Hige-kun stopped to my right; Kitsa and Katsu ran in front of me. "Katsu, Kitsa, you two may leave now." They nodded and disappeared in a puff of smoke. "You two had better step back; I don't want you to get more injured." I heard Hige-kun tell the kids. I then turned my full attention to the missing Nin. "What are you doing picking on children?" I asked him. He laughed at me and I scowled; Hige-kun tensed. "I was just having a bit of fun with the girl, but her brother didn't like that very much, so I had to beat some sense into him. But that's alright, I was getting bored; maybe I'll just play with you instead." He was smiling at me, obviously thinking not-so-pleasant thoughts. I studied him for a moment; he had very short black hair and was lean. He would've been good looking if he wasn't a pervert. I scoffed at him, "I think you're too old to be playing games." He laughed at me again and Hige-kun seemed to be getting angry. "Enough talking." I could hear the anger in his voice. Hige-kun pulled out a kunai and charged at the Nin. He sliced at him, but Masanori jumped back to dodge. Bad move. I whipped out my fan and opened it. I swung it in front of me in Masanori's direction. Blades of wind were pushed from my fan, covering a large area; he wouldn't be able to dodge this just as easy. He jumped further to his right, away from Hige-kun. He was too slow though and the blades cut through his left side and back. He stumbled but recovered quickly. He formed several hand signs and the ground split from beneath my feet. It surprised me and I fell through; quickly approaching what seemed to be the center of the Earth. Out of the corner of my eye, before I fell too deep, I saw Hige-kun summon a water wall to shield him from the earth that was thrown at him from another Earth style jutsu. I summoned chakra to my feet and floated on the air. I began running through the air, forming my wind dragon at the same time. I jumped on its back and rushed towards Masanori. He smirked and formed a fire dragon which then headed in my direction. I began to worry; my dragon was just going to feed his since mine was wind-natured. I didn't make it strong enough to overpower his. I jumped off of my dragon and made it duck under his. His kept going in my direction but I wasn't worried about it, I kept concentrating on mine. Just as his was about to engulf me in flames a water wall flew in front of me, reducing the fire dragon to harmless steam. My dragon quickly wrapped itself around Masanori's body and I released the jutsu. A burst of high speed winds appeared immediately and cuts appeared on Masanori. Just as he was about to form more hand seals I disappeared with the breeze, using my teleportation jutsu. His hands froze in the second to last seal as I reappeared to his left. My hand, glowing green with medical chakra, flew at the muscles in his left arm. I disappeared again as he swung at me with his right hand, his other hanging uselessly at his side. I reappeared beside Hige-kun who had thrown five kunai at the missing Nin when his attention was on me; he saw them too late. The blades sliced at his arms and torso. One slammed into his gut and he fell forward. I made my way towards the children; Masanori would faint from blood loss in about a minute so there was nothing to worry about. His right arm was useless due to the kunai Hige-kun had thrown. "Hello, my name is Rei Kitsuna. What are yours?" The small girl was crying quietly, but looking at me warily. Her teen brother was tensed, ready to defend him and his sister if the need arose. I smiled to myself; he was a good big brother. "I am Tamotsu and this is my sister, Sumiko." I smiled at them, "Both your names are wonderful. I looked to Hige-kun who was slowly approaching us, "This is my team mate, Hige Inuzuka." I turned my gaze to Tamotsu whose injuries were the worst. "I'm a medical ninja; will you please allow me to heal you?" He shook his head, "Heal Sumiko-chan first, I can wait." I gave him a weary look but did as he said. I bent down to the black-haired girl. Her short, bob cut hair was messy and dirty; probably from trying to escape Masanori. "Hold out your arm please." She winced as she moved her arm, but held it out anyway. My right hand glowed green and I placed it above her shallow cut. It healed almost immediately. I healed the other small cuts that would've healed on their own in a day or two. I then turned my attention to Tamotsu who was wavering on his feet. "Hige-kun, help him stay on his feet." His hand immediately went to Tamotsu's left, uninjured shoulder. "Okay, you have to be as still as possible for me." I waited until he nodded and stepped forward. "This will take longer than your sister's injuries; maybe a few minutes." He nodded again and I began healing. My hand moved slowly down his right arm, from the shoulder to his elbow. I then moved to his stomach. "I'm gonna have to lift up your shirt" I warned him. "It might hurt a little until I numb it." "I'll be fine, go ahead." It was my turn to nod then, and I lifted his shirt slowly, trying not to make his cut worse. He hissed slightly and winced, but tried not to move much more. I pulled it over his head and threw it to the forest floor. "Don't move" I moved my hand to his side and tried to see if there was any more damage than just the cut. This would take a bit longer; his stomach was damaged as well. I began healing his stomach first, and then moved on to his side which had finally stopped bleeding. It closed up quickly and I was done. I looked over to Hige-kun to see if he had gained any injuries. "I'm fine. He was preoccupied with you for the most part." He scowled at the last part and I just grinned. "Alright, Hige-kun, grab Masanori. There's a place about two hours from here that we can gather the bounty from." I looked to the kids, "Where do you two live?" The boy pointed in the direction behind me. "We live in a border town an hour from here." I nodded, "Okay, we'll walk you home first." The boy looked like he was going to argue but stopped after looking at his sister. He smiled lovingly as she yawned. The events of today probably wiped her out. "Hige-kun, before you grab Masanori, summon Shiromaru." "Why?" "Sumiko-chan is tired." He nodded and formed the seals required for the summoning. In a puff of smoke a large, white wolf appeared. He had ice blue eyes and came up to Hige-kun's waist. "What's wrong now Hige?" Hige-kun scratched the back of his head and gave an embarrassed smile. "Um, I kinda need you to give Sumiko-chan a ride." "I am not a pet Hige; I don't give rides." "Oh, come on Shiro-jiji. She's really tired and you'd be most comfortable!" I told him sweetly. He looked to me and sighed. "How can I say no to that face? Fine but she better not move." I smiled, "Thank you Shiro-jiji." "Yeah yeah," he grumbled and walked over to her. She squealed and hugged the 'cute doggy'. "I'm not a dog, I'm a wolf. We're much stronger than those house pets." He tried to explain to Sumiko, but she ignored him. I smiled at them. "Alright, time to leave you guys." I said as I finished injecting a fluid that would make sure Masanori didn't wake up for at least twelve hours. We set off towards Tamotsu and Sumiko's home village. We had to walk for their sake, so it took us an hour when it would've take Hige-kun and I ten or twenty minutes. Sumiko fell asleep shortly after we left the clearing. "Thank you for saving us. I really appreciate it." Hige-kun and I looked over to Tamotsu. "No problem. I couldn't let him attack innocent children." Tamotsu gave me a humored look. "But you're only about two years older than me. Do you consider yourself a child?" I thought that over, "I've probably gone through a lot more than you have so no, I do not consider myself a child." "You probably have, being a ninja and all. Is your life hard?" I thought about that too, "A little. It does keep life interesting, but I worry about my friends every day, especially the ones that have left the village." He looked confused at that, "I didn't know ninja could leave their villages unless on a mission." I smiled, "They can't" A look of comprehension fell over his face, "Oh, what happened." "My sister and her boyfriend killed a few people and had to leave the village or risk the death penalty. His younger brother and my friend left the village to find more power. I worry about them every day."Tamotsu and Hige-kun were both looking at me then. "They really killed people?" Tamotsu sounded amazed and Hige-kun and I just laughed at him. "Tamotsu-kun, ninja kill for a living. But yeah, they did. I'm gonna find them soon and ask them why." Determination burned in my eyes. We walked in silence after that until we arrived at the small village. Shiromaru, Hige-kun and I heard voices yelling in the distance; probably searching for the two kids that were with us. We walked quickly into the village and to the people in the center of the village. A woman ran up and hugged the two children. "Oh, I'm so glad you're here. Where have you been all day, we were worried sick!" The lady had long black hair, most likely their mother. Sumiko had woken up at the commotion and decided to inform her already worried mother about the days events. "A big scary man ran off with me when I was playing in the woods. Tamotsu-nii ran after me and fought the bad man, but he got beat up." Tamotsu looked embarrassed at this. "But then, the Kaze Megami and Ookami sousui saved us! They were amazing Okaa-san!" She looked up at us in admiration. "The Wind Goddess and Wolf Leader helped you?" Her mother looked just as amused as Hige-kun and I. Looks like we got new nicknames. Sumiko nodded her head enthusiastically. "Well then, thank you very much Kaze Megami and Ookami Sousui." I laughed at that. "It was no problem at all; I'm Rei Kitsuna by the way." "And I'm Hige Inuzuka. We're Jounin from Konoha. If you ever have any more problems, just send a request to the Hokage." She nodded her head. "I will do that in the future, thank you very much." "We have to be leaving now; we have a mission to finish." I said and nodded my head in Masanori's direction, who still slumped over Hige-kun's shoulder, out cold. "Very well, have a safe trip." "Goodbye. Stay out of trouble now!" I told Tamotsu and Sumiko. They nodded and made their way home. "I think I like our nicknames." I looked over to see what Hige-kun thought. "Yeah, but yours is better than Wolf Leader." I laughed at him. "I think it's kinda catchy." I smiled at him then ran off in the direction of where we were going to collect the bounty. "Hey, it's kind of hard to run with a two hundred something pound man on your shoulder!" I laughed at as he tried to catch up to me, which was impossible.

We were now on our way back to the village, bounty in hand. Hige-kun kept rolling his shoulders. I sighed, "Hige-kun, come here." He gave me a strange look but walked over anyway. My hand glowed green and I placed it on his right shoulder. I sent soothing chakra to his sore muscles so they wouldn't hurt anymore. He gave a sigh of relief and gave me his lopsided smile, "Thanks" "No problem, now I want to make it home before tomorrow." He nodded and we started running again. We arrived in the village about five hours later. The mission overall took about a week. When we arrived at Hokage Tower to give our reports, the lady at the desk said that Tsunade was, once again, at the hospital, tending to team 7 who had just gotten back from their latest mission. We left the bounty with the assistant and made our way to the hospital to see how they were. The doors to the hospital opened just as we were walking up. Tsunade was walking out with Shizune to her left. "Hello Tsunade-sama." She nodded at me, "How was your mission?" Hige-kun responded, "A success. The bounty should be waiting in your office. We kept him alive so it's more." "We even got nicknames during the mission!" She looked at me strangely, "Really, what are they?" I laughed and Hige-kun smirked, "I'm the Kaze Megami and Hige-kun is the Ookami Sousui." Her and Shizune laughed at that, "I guess the names fit though since you're a wind user and he summons wolves." I nodded, "Yep. So I heard you were checkin on Team 7. What kind of mission did they have this time? Were any injuries serious?" She shook her head, "Not really. The worst was Kakashi. He used his Mangekyou so he'll be out of commission for a little while, but Sakura pretty much healed the other injuries." I smirked; Kakashi hates the hospital just as much as all other shinobi. "So, what was their mission if he had to use the sharingan?" She looked at me warily, "Akatsuki is targeting the jinchuurikis. Gaara was the container for the Ichibi, the one tailed beast." "Was? So what happened, they took it out of him?" "Yeah, he died, but an old medic, Chiyo, saved him by giving him her life energy. I don't even know how to do that." I was amazed, "They managed to kill Gaara-kun?" She nodded, "Yeah, but he put up quite a fight. The Akatsuki are stronger than I originally thought." "Who was sent to fight him?" "A bomber, Deidara and his partner, Sasori, a puppet master." "Were Itachi-nii and Kristi-nee seen?" Tsunade sighed, "Itachi was sent to hold off Team 7. Naruto managed to defeat him, but it ended up only being a clone made by their leader. Kristi hasn't been seen." I was beginning to get worried. I know I shouldn't since she turned against her village, but nobody has seen her since she left. I was absolutely sure she would still be with Itachi. Now I was curious as to what she's been doing. I would find out one way or another.


	16. Chapter 15: The Akatsuki

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 15: The Akatsuki

It has been three and a half months since Hige-kun and I were given our nicknames. We were becoming infamous; many people from different countries knew about us now due to them. Don't ask me how they got spread either because I have no idea. Currently we were on our way to Hokage Tower. Apparently we were the only ones in the village at the moment that could do this mission; it was B-ranked. The other teams were probably already on other missions and she didn't want to use her Anbu.

"There you two are! Here, take this mission scroll; you leave as soon as possible. People from a close by town have said there have been two suspicious looking figures roaming the area. Although they are only a day away, they are in the middle of nowhere; it's a pretty small town, mainly used for farming so they don't see strangers too often. They're worried the passersby will cause trouble for them so they asked us to get rid of them if they mean harm. This mission shouldn't be too difficult since you don't really have to look too hard for them." We nodded and left.

We were running at a comfortable pace and made it to the small village by the end of the night. Tsunade was right when she said it was pretty small. There were farm areas everywhere and only two inns. We stayed at the cheapest one because we didn't bring too much money with us. When we arrived at the inn we ate dinner and went to sleep; it was getting too late to do much else. In the morning we walked around the village and asked the villagers what the strangers looked like. "They wear black cloaks with red clouds and straw hats." Hige-kun looked at me; they were from Akatsuki. "Where can we find them?" "The larger guy has been seen at the bar a lot. He can hold his liquor pretty well too." "Thank you for your help." It was still too early to go to the bar so we snooped around the village some more. We asked the villagers what they knew but mostly got the same answer. The only thing new we found out was that the larger guy was accompanied by the smaller one, although the smaller one seemed to be the leader of the two.

Later that day, when the sun began to set, we made our way to the only bar in town. As soon as Hige-kun opened the door, a blast of liquor and smoke smacked me in the face. I coughed lightly but continued walking in. Hige-kun gave me a concerned look but I brushed it off. We sat at a booth in the back and ordered some drinks; I ordered coke, I wasn't big on the taste of liquor, but Hige-kun ordered some sake. The waiter didn't ask for I.D.; not many people asked a ninja for it. As the drinks were set on our table I glanced around. The bar was very crowded, making it hard to make out any specific features. I called forth my bloodline trait, or kekkai genkai, and my eyes turned a dark shade of blue. Blue flames immediately swam in my vision. The largest flame was close to the bar. I glanced discreetly in the direction and saw a man that was twice my height! Well, maybe not twice my height, more like, three heads taller, but still. I focused on his chakra signature and memorized it quickly; everybody's signature was different. I turned back to my drink. "The tall guy at the bar is who we're looking for. Judging from his chakra, he's a water user." Hige-kun nodded at the information but didn't say anything.

When the bar closed, we followed the drunken man to his hotel. He obviously was staying at the more expensive one, making it more difficult for us to keep track of him. I glanced up at the third floor; I felt a pang of familiarity but it went away fast. We returned back to our hotel and went to bed for the night.

Morning came quickly and we walked back to the other hotel. I searched for a few minutes before I turned to Hige-kun. "I can't sense his chakra; they left already." We walked up to the front counter, "Excuse me, do you know where the men in the black cloaks went?" The man at the counter shook his head, "I'm sorry, I am not at liberty to discuss the whereabouts of our guests." I sighed, "It's alright, I understand." Hige-kun and I left and walked around the village for a few minutes. He walked up to the man who described the Akatsuki members to us the day before. I saw the guy nod his head, point, and respond to Hige-kun's answer. Hige-kun ran in my direction, "He said they left about an hour ago, to the west." With that we made our way out of the village, in the direction the old man pointed. We took off at full speed, hoping to catch up on lost time. Within an hour and a half I could make out the beginnings of two flames. We slowed to a jog, then a walk and became deadly silent. Apparently they were taking a break. "Kisame, I told you not to drink the night before we leave." "Hehe, sorry bout that, but I love sake!" I shook my head at that; he was a drunk! I peeked from behind the tree I was at and saw the large guy standing about five feet away. His hat was off and I could see his face. His skin was blue and he looked like he had gills. Wait, did his partner say Kisame, as in Hoshigaki? That means that the smaller one is… I looked over and saw the infamous red of the sharingan, pointed in my direction. Itachi Uchiha was right in front of me! I've finally found him! I stepped out from behind the tree and into the open. It didn't matter anyway, Itachi had seen me already. "Rei-chan, what are you doing?" Hige-kun was angry at me but oh well. He followed me into the clearing. Kisame looked over at us lazily, "See, told ya the Kaze Megami was tailing us. Leader will be happy if we bring her to him… she kinda looks like K-" "Kisame, shut up." I heard Itachi effectively cut off Kisame with his calm voice. He looked colder than he was before he left the village. I was about to say something when I felt a kunai press against my throat. He's so fast! I glanced out of the corner of my eye towards Itachi. Hige-kun tensed immediately, ready to attack or defend. "Do not move or she dies." Itachi's chest vibrated against my back as he talked in his deep voice. I huffed, "No fair, you didn't even give me a chance, I wasn't ready." "You do not get chances in the shinobi world; you should be well aware. Now stop talking before I slit your throat." I narrowed my eyes and growled at him. Why was he being so mean, that was what Sasuke's job was. I was getting tired of making sure the kunai didn't nick my neck, so I teleported to the opposite side of the clearing. He looked surprised for a millisecond and then put his stoic mask back on. "You have improved over the years." I scoffed, "I'd hope so, and it's been what, six years?" His partner, Kisame, looked confused at this. "Kisame, take care of the boy." Kisame whipped out his large sword and rushed at Hige-kun. Itachi launched several kunai at me once Hige-kun's fight began a few hundred feet away. I held up a hand and raised my barrier, making the kunai ineffective. I huffed; I really didn't want to fight him, but I guess I have no choice. I rushed at him, my hands glowing light blue with my wind chakra. I dropped into my clan's taijutsu stance and attacked him. He dodged all of my hits. I growled and sent my hands out faster, but still didn't manage to hit him. I went out of his sight and reappeared behind him, kicking him in the back. He disappeared in a flurry of black crows. I unsheathed my sword and rose it above my head as he attacked with a kunai from my right side. I kicked at him, but he jumped back and performed several hand signs. He brought a hand to his mouth and large fireballs flew at me. I determined how hot they were and then performed my dragon breath jutsu. I added enough chakra so that if overpowered the flames instead of feeding them and went right through, hitting Itachi in the gut. He hit the tree hard but got back up. I narrowed my eyes at him; that hit should've at least caused him to stumble or something. Then it clicked, "Release!" I broke the genjutsu and in front of me stood Itachi, in the same position from when I entered the clearing. I glanced to my right and gasped. Hige-kun was bleeding everywhere and Kisame had Hige's arms behind his back. "Let him go Hoshigaki!" I yelled at him but he just smirked and lifted his sword to Hige-kun's neck. I turned to Itachi, "Tell him to let Hige-kun go!" He turned to Kisame but didn't say anything. Kisame was the one to talk, "I'll let him go if you come with us without a fight. I growled low in my throat but I didn't have to think very hard. "Fine, but I want him alive; he's all I have left." I mumbled the last part quietly; I don't think anyone heard. Kisame nodded at that, "Good." Hige-kun slumped in Kisame's grasp, who then released him; he fell in a heap to the forest floor. Kisame's sword was lowered to above Hige's body as I was about to run towards him. "Don't move little Megami or his head comes off. You're coming with us now." I was about to yell at him to let me heal him, take him someplace safe, but Itachi appeared in front of me, sharingan activated. His eyes started swirling and I was knocked out within seconds.

"_Ugh, my head hurts __**really**__ bad." _ I looked around, "Where am I?" I saw white walls, a beige carpet and two doors. I was lying on one of two beds. I tensed slightly as I heard one of the doors open and a calm, deep voice answered me. "You are at a hotel in a town." Pssh, I knew that already. I looked to Itachi, "Why did you take me?" He smirked, "That's a little bit more specific. Leader wants you, that's why." I tilted my head to the right, "Why does he want me?" He scowled at me, "You have made a name for yourself and he has become interested in your abilities." "But Hige-kun made a name for himself too." "It would have been too difficult to take both of you at the same time and he wants your healing abilities and your kekkai genkai." I furrowed my brows, "But doesn't he have Kristi-nee already?" Itachi looked away when I said that, "She left four years ago." I adopted a look of understanding; so that's why nobody has seen or heard of her. "Why did she leave the organization if she joined it in the first place?" He looked at me but didn't say anything. The door opened several seconds after my question and Kisame walked in. "Itachi-san, wanna go to the bar tonight?" He bellowed in a loud, obnoxious voice. Itachi narrowed his eyes, "Kisame do not get drunk; we leave early tomorrow morning." Kisame looked saddened at the idea but left all the same; I guess Itachi wasn't going. "You never answered my question Itachi-nii." His brows rose at what I had said, "Why did she leave?" He let out a sigh and sat on the bed next to me. "Kristi left about a year after Izayoi was born; leader wanted to train as soon as she could walk." His eyes hardened as he said this while mine took on a look of confusion. "Who is Izayoi?" He looked surprised for a second, but it was gone quickly. "Our daughter." I couldn't help it; I smiled brightly, "Congratulations Nii-chan! You should've told me earlier; I'm an aunt now!" He gave a small smile, "I could not have told you earlier or I would have been seen." Oh, right. His eyes narrowed, "When we arrive at the hideout behave. If you give any of the members too much trouble, they will kill you." I scoffed at him, "They won't kill me if they have use of me; besides, if you're worried too much just let me go now." "I cannot; it would raise suspicion. I am one of the stronger members and should be capable of catching and disabling you should you run." "Pssh, I don't think so. I could totally kick your butt now Itachi-nii!" He laughed at me; a quiet one. "Then why did you not defeat me in the clearing?" I huffed and looked to the side, "I didn't want to embarrass you in front of your partner." He laughed again. "You and the Inuzuka appear to be closer now. What happened, I though he annoyed you?" "We were put on the same genin team along with Tsubaki-chan and Hitoshi-sensei. We've been dating for a few years now, since the village was attacked by Orochimaru." "Where are Tsubaki-chan and Hitoshi? You said you were teamed with them." My eyes started to tear up as a lump formed in my throat. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. When I had control over my emotions I spoke, "They were killed during the invasion. That's actually the reason why I became a medical ninja. I wanted to be able to save my friends." "I'm sorry you had to go through that, but it becomes common in the ninja world." I nodded and then looked at him. "Itachi-nii, why did you kill your clan?" He looked surprised; probably not expecting me to ask so… randomly. "In order to test my power." I scoffed at him, "To test my power my butt. Don't lie to me Uchiha; I know you wouldn't do that. I also know that Kristi-nee wouldn't kill them, especially not your mother." He looked amused at how upset I was getting but that just made me angrier. "Tell me the truth!" He sighed and looked to the ground, "I can't do that so please stop asking me to." I huffed at him, "Fine whatever, I don't care anyway. But you know, Sasuke really hates you now." He nodded slowly, "I know, that was the plan. I wanted him to be the one to end my life." I looked at him seriously, "Wanted as in past tense? You don't want to die anymore then." He looked apprehensive, "No, I still want him to kill me, but I want to make sure Kristi and Izayoi are fine first." "Why do you still want to die? What's wrong?" He looked at me, "I'm going to die either way, I'd rather it be by his hands." I sighed; he has issues. "You know Itachi-nii; your death will be a waste of a perfectly good life. I mean you're one of the strongest ninja in the world and kind-hearted, no matter what you say." He smiled at me, "It does not matter, I don't have a choice." I huffed again, "Why, why don't you have a choice?" "I can't tell you that either." I was about to scream at him and demand that he tell me, but I heard footsteps approaching the room. I looked to the clock; we had been talking for a while so it was probably Kisame. The slammed open and Kisame staggered through the door. Itachi scowled at him; he had obviously gone against Itachi's wished and got drunk. I laughed at him as he fell on the bed beside Itachi. He looked over at me, "Go to sleep, we leave early tomorrow." I frowned but did as I was told anyway.

"How much further are we Itachi-nii?" I complained. It wasn't that I was tired; I was just bored. Itachi didn't talk much and Kisame liked to pick on me. "What's the matter Megami-chan, can't handle a little walking?" He laughed at me. See, I told you he liked to pick on me. I scowled at him, "No, I'm just getting bored is all. You're no fun at all." It was his turn to scowl. The first time I called Itachi nii-chan in front of him, Kisame had asked a bunch of questions. Itachi sent me a look and I explained why I called him my brother. Kisame was a bit surprised, but he had a feeling. He was pretty perceptive for a drunken guy. "We will be there in a few minutes. Stop complaining." I stuck my tongue out at him and Kisame laughed. We stopped in the middle of the forest and I glanced around. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. I was about to say something, but I sensed something in front of me. I activated my kekkai genkai, my eyes turning blue as a result, and my eyes widened. There was a huge barrier in front of me; so that's what I was sensing. I looked to Itachi who had cut his hand and began forming hand seals. He paused on the last seal and the barrier shimmered. We walked through and the barrier fell back in to place. _"So the barrier recognizes the users by blood."_ I stored the information in the back of my mind; it would be important to remember when making an escape plan. I soon saw a huge building appear in my vision. It was made of brick and I could feel the chakra running through it. Kisame was the one who did hand signs this time and the door opened. Kisame led us through the long hallway. At the end of the hall was what looked to be the living area. There was a couch, some chairs and a fireplace. "To the left is the kitchen." Itachi began to have several violent coughs. I looked over to him but he ignored me. He spoke, "Follow me, leader wishes to meet you." I nodded and we left Kisame who began walking in the direction of the kitchen. We walked down another hallway. I could sense several chakras behind doors but I didn't recognize any; they were probably the other members. We took a left into another hallway and walked to the end of it. Behind the dark, mahogany door was a large source of chakra. Itachi began talking to me, "Remember to be respectful. He is stronger than you." I scoffed at him but didn't say anything. I'd be able to escape if he tried anything. Itachi looked concerned at my response but opened the door anyway. As we entered I noticed that the room was brighter than I thought. There was a desk to the back and three chairs in front of it. Behind the desk sat an orange, spiky haired man with piercings all over his face. Beside him stood a woman with blue hair adorned with a paper flower. I followed Itachi who stopped to stand in front of 'leader'. I looked at Itachi and then went to sit in one of the chairs; I was not going to stand the entire time. The Akatsuki leader looked amused at my actions but Itachi looked upset. I stuck my tongue out at him and turned my gaze to the orange haired man. "Hello, I'm Rei Kitsuna and I believe you're the one who told your… underlings to bring me here. I don't really appreciate that." I heard Itachi sigh and the leader guy didn't change his expression. "I am Pein and yes I did tell them to bring you here. I am in need of your abilities." "Of course you are, but I am in allegiance with Konoha. Sorry" "I am aware of that but either way you will stay here. It is a matter of whether you want to be forced or do anything on your own account. If you pledge your loyalty to Akatsuki you will not need to be watched as heavily." I scoffed at him, "I don't care. I am loyal to my friends and family." He gave me a look, "So, you are loyal to Itachi, who is your brother." I thought about that, "Yes." "You are saying that you would obey any orders he gave you?" I shook my head, "That is not what I'm saying. Although I am loyal to him, I would not obey an order that I wholly disagreed with, such as capturing someone just because they owe him money." "You are aware that should you not obey me, you will die." I shook my head, "If you think I'm going to let you kill me, you have another thing coming. I don't care if you are the leader of the most powerful organization; you are not going to treat me as some… thing that you think you can control!" I really hated being told what to do. "You will not speak to me as if you are my superior; I could kill without batting an eye." He sounded angry now; "Then kill me because I'm not doing anything you want. It'll just be a waste of your time." I heard a chair scrape against the floor and hit the wall. I vanished in a blink of an eye, just to reappear a few feet away. Itachi was standing in front of where I was a few seconds ago, holding Pein's hand that held a sharp pole looking thing. Pein looked to Itachi, "Do not touch me and do not protect her. She is disrespectful." I scoffed but quieted after Itachi sent me a look; he looked angrier than Pein. "I am sorry Leader-sama, I will talk with her." I huffed and looked away. "Don't worry yourself Itachi; I will have Kakuzu talk to her." Itachi stiffened at what he said. I didn't care, I wasn't going to listen to anyone about this subject; I was leaving soon anyway. Itachi walked me up to a hallway. He still seemed slightly worried for me but I wasn't dwelling too much. He had described Kakuzu to me; it didn't take much to anger him and Itachi was fearful that I would push him over the edge, which I probably would. I wasn't scared though; I could protect myself. Itachi sighed and knocked on the door. A tall man opened it. He had a mask covering the bottom half of his face and he wore a fabric on his head. I could only make out his eyes. They were red with green pupils. He had stitches all over his body. "Hello, I'm Rei Kitsuna. You must be Kakuzu." He looked down at me. "This is the one Pein wanted me to talk to?" He directed this question to Itachi and I huffed in annoyance at being ignored. "Yes." "Why aren't you the one to talk to her? He usually has you scare the new people." Itachi let out a small breath but I was pretty sure I was the only one who noticed. "Because she is family and will not listen to me." I scoffed, "I won't listen to anybody; this is just a waste of time." Kakuzu rose an eyebrow, "Hard to believe she is related to you; she talks too much." I huffed, "That's just cuz Itachi-nii is boring." "She is Kristi's little sister; we are in-laws." "Hey, I'm not little anymore! I'm sixteen now thank you very much." I stuck my tongue out at him and he just sighed again. I saw him tense a little and start to cough. "I've got to go now. Don't cause any trouble Rei-chan." He walked away after that. I furrowed my brows; I was going to have to ask him about that cough. It sounded worse than a simple cold. Kakuzu stared at me and then walked into the room. I followed him in and closed the door. I sat down in a chair. "What are you doing?" I looked at him, "I'm just getting comfortable. I didn't want my feet to get tired in the middle of whatever lecture you're going to give me." "I'm not going to lecture you. Just sit tight for about an hour and then you can leave." I looked surprised, "Why?" He grumbled, "It's as you said, you're not going to listen and I don't feel like wasting my breath on you. So just shut up; I get enough talking from Hidan. I scowled but didn't talk. I didn't know what to talk about anyway. I summoned a small breeze of wind and formed it in the shape of a fox. I made it run around the room, being careful not to do anything that would upset the man in the room. An hour soon passed and I was let out. I walked to the door that led outside. My hand began to wrap itself around the handle but I pulled it back quickly as a spark of electricity shot up my arm. So much for just walking out; I knew it wouldn't work but decided to try anyway. I summoned chakra and teleported outside. I looked around at the surrounding trees. I was a few feet away from the door; I couldn't believe that worked. Then I thought on it; my jutsu was different from the other teleportation jutsu. I shrugged my shoulders and walked to the edge of the barrier. I used my jutsu to position myself just outside the barrier. I summoned Kitsa and Katsu. "Kitsa, I need you to run back to Konoha. Tell Tsunade that I am with Akatsuki." She nodded at my instructions and left quickly. I used my jutsu again to bring me and Katsu back within the barrier. I walked towards the hideout and heard something behind. I spun around and saw a Venus flytrap wearing an Akatsuki cloak. A man's black and white head was inside the opening. "There is no use in sending a messenger to your village. We will be leaving this hideout in a few days anyway." I looked to Katsu who shook his head. That was good, this man didn't attack Kitsa. "It doesn't matter. I just wanted to let her know that I wasn't dead." He looked to Katsu, "What do you plan to do with him?" I shrugged, "I want company. I only know Itachi-nii and he probably won't be around much." The man moved his hands quickly and disappeared into the ground. I began walking back towards the hideout. "Jump Katsu" He jumped away as I threw a kunai at the spot he had previously occupied. It struck the plant guy on his shoulder. He hissed and rose out of the ground, pulling the kunai out and throwing it at me. I caught it on one of my fingers and began twirling it. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't attack my foxes." He didn't say anything as he disappeared again, for good this time. I went into the kitchen and I looked around for a snack. I couldn't find anything. The only thing was sake and I definitely didn't want that. I sighed and walked around, searching for Itachi. I found his chakra signature and knocked on the door. He answered the door, looking kinda rough. "Sorry, did I wake you up?" He shook his head and let me in."What's wrong?" "Nothing just bored. I'm hungry but all you guys have is sake; not very appetizing." He looked to Katsu, "Why do you have a fox with you?" I shrugged my shoulders and then thought about something. "I cannot tell you." I quoted him. He scowled at me. "Why do you keep coughing? And don't tell me it's a cold because I know it's not." He stared at me awhile and then sighed, "I have a terminal illness. It cannot be healed." I took in a quick breath. "Sit on the bed please." "I've already been to several well-known medics and they said nothing can be done." He sat down anyway. I summoned green healing chakra, "Remove your shirt please." He did as I said I placed my hand on his chest. I closed my eyes so I could concentrate better. An image began to appear in my mind; a heart and the vessels surrounding it. I hissed through my teeth as I saw how mangled everything was. It was amazing how he could run and do everything a ninja does without passing out from the pain that it had to be causing. "Itachi-nii, they lied to you. You don't have a terminal illness." His eyes lightened up with hope, "So I can be healed?" I was apprehensive, "I'm not entirely sure. The blood vessels in your heart are mangled and cut up badly. It's amazing you're still living actually. Did you get into a fight with a medic?" His eyes dimmed again and then he thought about my question. "I was attacked by Kabuto, Orochimaru's medic a few years back. He slammed his hand into my chest at one point but the pain left a few minutes after." "He probably numbed it so you wouldn't look for a medic right away. I guess it started to heal itself just enough so that you wouldn't die but it's still bad. I'll see if I can heal any of the damage." He nodded and laid back. I sent healing chakra into his chest and he gave a sigh of relief. There had probably been a pressure in his chest for awhile now.

I lifted my hands after a few hours of healing. I had managed to med a few of the vessels and soothed some of the pain. He fell asleep about half an hour into the healing session. I sighed and left the room. I caught the scent of food and went into the kitchen. The people in the kitchen stopped talking as I walked into the room. Four heads turned in my direction, "Whatsa chick doin here?" I looked to the person who said this. It was the only one I didn't recognize. He had grey hair slicked back and red-tinted eyes. I scowled at him, "None of your business." I walked to the table and sat in an empty seat next to Kisame. I reached over to grab some food; takeout. I began eating silently as the others stared at me. I swallowed my food, "It's rude to stare you guys." I continued eating. "Yeah, well it's rude to walk up and steal someone's food! Give it back bitch!" The foul-mouthed man reached over to take my food. I set it on the table quickly and my hand flew out to grab his wrist and twist it painfully. "Watch your mouth or I'll cut your tongue out!" "Hidan, stop harassing the girl or Itachi-san will get mad." I looked over to Kisame as I let go of Hidan. "Keh, I'm not scared of that pus-""You should do as she says and watch your language Hidan." Itachi walked calmly into the room and sat beside me. I looked over at him, concern in my eyes, "How are you feeling?" I whispered quietly to him. He gave me a small smile in thanks, telling me he was fine at the moment. I let out a breath and nodded my head and then continued eating my food; I was starving. After dinner, Itachi showed me my room. I took a shower and went to bed. I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.


	17. Chapter 16: The Mission

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 16: The Mission

I yawned sleepily as I walked into the kitchen. I saw Kakuzu, Kisame and Deidara sitting at the table, eating leftovers from last night; gross. I went to the fridge but only leftovers filled my vision. I sighed and looked around for something edible. My eyes landed on a bowl on the counter to the right of the fridge. I saw fruit; oranges, apples, peaches and bananas. I grabbed a peach and decided I'd rather eat it outside than in the building with the losers. I made my way to the door, Katsu joining me. I put my hand on the door knob but pulled it back quickly; I forgot about the jutsu on the door. I sighed again and walked to my room; I didn't feel like poofing outside. I sat on my bed quietly and looked to Katsu, "Have you heard anything yet?" I whispered to him, hoping we wouldn't be overheard. He shook his head and lied down. I finished my peach and walked outside of my room. I scanned the building for Itachi's familiar chakra pattern but couldn't find it. I frowned and searched for Kisame's; his wasn't here either. They probably went on a mission. This thought made me extremely upset; I didn't want to be left with a bunch of power-hungry, arrogant losers. I walked to the living area and looked around. I saw a bookshelf to my left, next to the fireplace but not close enough as to catch fire. I walked over to it slowly and scanned the shelves for an interesting book. They were mostly about ninja stuff; different clans, fighting styles, weapons, stuff like that. I sat on a chair, staring into the fireplace, empty handed. None of the books caught my interest; I already knew about most of them anyway. I turned my head in the direction of the kitchen. Then, an idea popped into my head. I haven't really cooked too much, but this would be a perfect opportunity. I walked to Pein's office, laughing softly as I heard Katsu's light snores as I passed my room. I knocked lightly on the door and opened it when a deep voice beckoned me in. I closed it softly and stood in front of Pein. "What is it? Are you going to ally with Akatsuki?" He looked at me expectantly; he obviously didn't know me that well if he thought I was going to give in so easily. I shook my head, "I am still thinking it over" I lied smoothly. Being a Kitsuna I got away with lying easily; maybe we really were descendents from fox demons. "Then why are you here?" Okay, now he began sounding impatient. I decided to be polite, "I was hoping you'd let me go to the nearest town so I could buy some things to make an actual meal. You can't live off of takeout Pein-sama." The honorific was a stretch but I decided to add it anyway. He smirked at me, "Really? We've been living off of it for the past few years, a few more won't kill anybody." I held in a huff, "Well, I actually wanted to get out of this house for a little while. Hidan and Deidara are annoying. I wouldn't even mind if you sent Kakuzu with me!" I smiled brightly at him, hoping it would win him over like it did with Hige-kun. He smirked again, "You may go, but Kakuzu and Hidan are going with you." I scowled but bowed and nodded my thanks. At least I could finally get out of the barrier without worrying about them tailing me. I walked into the hallway in the direction of my room. I went in and sat on the sleeping Katsu. He yelped and quickly jumped up from under me, falling onto the floor. I laughed at him, "Katsu, you shouldn't sleep on my bed!" He gave me a fox scowl and sat on the floor in front of my bed. "You should watch where you're sitting Rei-chan." I laughed again, "I saw you! I just didn't feel like picking you up!" He shook his head at me, "You are lazy for a ninja." I shook my head, "No I'm not. I'm walking to a village in a few minutes!" I defended myself, even though I knew he was right. His ears perked up at what I said, "Why, are we leaving?" I shook my head, "We can't. I'm a captive." I smiled as I said this. I could easily escape if I wanted to. "I'm going to get things to make a decent meal. All they eat here is takeout!" I got dressed quickly but began panicking when I couldn't find my sword or fan. _"I can't believe they took my stuff! Well, I guess that should've been expected if I'm a 'captive' but still!" _I huffed and closed my eyes. I concentrated, trying to find the chakra that I had filled my sword and fan with. It made it easier to form barriers and sharpen my blade with chakra already in it. I found it. They were in Pein's office, obviously. I huffed again and walked back to his office, this time with Katsu by my side. I entered without knocking and stormed in. "I would greatly appreciate it if you would give me my sword and fan." I said it as calmly as I could. He smirked, "You think I'm going to give you weapons? You must be more stupid than I originally thought." I bristled at his comment, but then smirked back. I extended my right hand to the side, in the direction of my weapons. I called my chakra back to me, forcing the sword and fan to fly at me. I caught my sword with my right hand and the fan in my left. He looked angry at my actions, but I just smiled brightly at him and left, sword in sheath and fan behind my back. I slammed the door and walked to the entrance of the building/house thing. I could sense Kakuzu's chakra coming from the hallway and Hidan's from the kitchen. I waited until they were behind me before I poofed to the other side of the door; outside. I heard the door slam open behind me and I turned around calmly. "What the hell was that?" Hidan obviously. " I wanted to get outside and I can't touch the handle, so I did the next best thing." I could tell he was about to blow up again, but Kakuzu silenced him, "Hidan, shut up. We're leaving now." I smiled and followed Kakuzu since I had no idea where the nearest town was. "How far is the town?" No one answered me and I pouted. Whatever, I didn't want to talk to them anyway.

"Finally!" I yelled as I ran to the entrance of the town. "Stop running runt!" Hidan was running in my direction. I slowed down as I entered the town so I wouldn't run into any villagers. Hidan caught up to me and Kakuzu walked up behind him; Katsu was standing silently at my side. "Okay, how about we split up and meet back here in… two hours!" I looked to both of them. Kakuzu was expressionless and Hidan's was full of surprise and then changed to amused. "You actually think we're gonna let you walk around on your own? You're an idiot!" I scowled at him. I looked to Katsu and he shook his head. I sighed, Katsu needed to tell me something and he couldn't if these two were around me. "Fine, I don't care. You can come shopping with me." I began walking further into the town, looking for a suitable shop. I saw Hidan make a face out of the corner of my eye; guess he didn't like shopping. "Kakuzu, you watch the runt. I'll meet ya later." He ran off after saying that. I could sense the anger radiating off of Kakuzu but I just continued forward. "Do you know where a good food stall or grocery store is?" I asked him. I waited a few minutes but he never answered me. I sighed and asked a villager. He pointed to the western side of the town. I followed his advice and went in that direction. My eyes widened in surprise when I turned a corner and saw the many stalls of food lining the streets. There were a lot for such a small town. I bought a large shopping bag that I could reuse at a stall closest to me and walked down the line. I picked asked the guy at a meat stall if he could deliver some to me later that day. He agreed and I went to the next stall that had flour and baking ingredients. I bought Shiratamako, (rice flour), soy sauce, sugar, and mirin (rice wine). This was so I could make dango; Itachi-nii loves it and I bet he hasn't had it for awhile. I picked up some eggs and rice and left the market place. On the way back to the entrance I told Kakuzu I had to use the restroom. "Very well, meet me at the town entrance. I will know if you try to escape." I gave him a look and walked off in search of a restroom. I gave Kakuzu the food. I looked around and walked into the nearest store. I looked around inside and saw different clothes and shoppers. I closed my eyes, searching for the chakra patterns of Kakuzu and Hidan. Both were on their way to the entrance. I looked down to Katsu, "What is it Katsu?" "Lady Tsunade said she wants you to stay and gain information on the Akatsuki. But do not be reckless." I smiled at the last part. "Alright. How long is this mission gonna be?" Katsu's eyes dimmed a little as he was talking telepathically with Kitsa. His eyes brightened a few seconds later and focused on me. "She said you will keep this mission unless it becomes too dangerous or they need you in the village." I nodded, "Okay, will do. Now let's go before they get suspicious." He nodded and we left. We made our way to the outside of the town and met up with Hidan and Kakuzu. "What took you so long bitch?" I scowled at him, "I was hoping you would leave if I took long so I wouldn't have to look at your ugly self." I walked towards the base. I could sense Hidan's anger building up, but Kakuzu shut him up.

I could sense Itachi's chakra as I entered the barrier; his mission must have been an easy one. I walked through the door that Kakuzu opened and into the kitchen. I put away the groceries and sat next to Itachi who was sipping some tea at the table. "Hi Itachi-nii, how was your day?" He looked at me from his tea, "It was eventful." He shifted his gaze to the cabinets where I put the ingredients for dango. "How did you get outside?" I smiled at him. "I asked Pein-sama of course." He raised an eyebrow at me but didn't say anything. I got up and walked towards the hallway. "Where are you going now?" I looked at Itachi, "I have to talk to Pein about something. It shouldn't take too long." I turned back around and stopped at the door to my room. I opened it and let Katsu in and then I continued on my way. I knocked on the door and Konan's voice told me to enter. "Hello, is Pein here? I need to tell him something." Konan shook her head, "No, he is doing something of the upmost importance. What is it you need to tell him?" I gave her a look, "It is for me and him to discuss." Her eyes hardened when I said this. I sighed; I didn't really want to make enemies here. "Can you please just tell me when he returns?" "Certainly, but you will be moved shortly." I tilted my head in confusion, "Moved to where?" She looked patient, "You will find out in due time." I huffed and left the room, making my way back to the kitchen. It was around five o'clock, so I decided to start on dinner. I cooked rice and when that was almost done, I cooked some chicken and egg. I placed six bowls on the counter and picked up one for myself. I got rice and added the chicken and egg on top. I sat down at the table and began eating with my chopsticks. Kisame was the first one who entered the kitchen. "What did ya guys order today?" "It's Oyakodon Donburi Kisame." He looked at me, "Did you make it?" I nodded, "Yep, I figured it'd be better to try something different than takeout for once. Bowls are out and the food is on the stove." I continued eating my food. One by one the other members came in and ate. Deidara came shortly after Kisame. Then it was Hidan, Kakuzu, and finally, Itachi. "This shit is fuckin good!" Hidan yelled loudly. "Hidan, if you do not control your language, I will take care of it. You are in the presence of a lady." I smiled up at Itachi but he was looking down at his food. "What lady, you mean this bitch?" I scowled at him and was about to open my mouth to say something crude but seeing Hidan fall off his chair and onto the floor stopped my train of thought. I laughed at him but when I saw he wasn't moving I turned to look at Itachi. His sharingan eyes were looking into the wall that was behind Hidan. He looked at me and then continued eating. I shook my head and walked over to Hidan. I checked his vital signs, seeing if he was still alive; which he was unfortunately. I walked back to my spot and picked up my dish. I cleaned it out and put the bowl away. I walked back to my seat and sat down. I looked around the table to look at everyone. Itachi was calmly eating, Deidara looked like he was about to start laughing again, Kisame was the same as Deidara and Kakuzu looked… like Kakuzu I guess. It was beginning to get weird; nobody was talking! I sighed, got up and went outside. I made a shadow clone and began sparring with it. After about an hour I plopped down in the grass and gazed at the night sky. It was clear. No clouds in sight; and there was a crescent moon. It reminded me of my sword and outfit. I looked down at my pants that held the scene. I sighed and lied down on the grass. I closed my eyes gently, ready to take a nap beneath the stars, until I felt a calm presence approaching me. I opened my left eye when I felt the figure sit down next to me. Itachi-nii was staring up at the stars as well, sharingan activated. Every time I looked at him it was activated. "Itachi-nii, why do you have your sharingan on all the time?" His red eyes shifted to look into my now brown eyes. I sat up straight as he began talking, "It gives me the advantage if someone tries to sneak up on me." I scoffed at him. "Nii-chan, I doubt anyone could sneak up on you. You are too aware of your surroundings. It must be giving you a headache to keep it activated all day." As a medic nin I had slight experience with this. Kakashi would complain about headaches to Sakura-chan and I did checkups on some Hyuugas. After awhile, the chakra in their eyes builds up and causes the head to become sore behind the eyes. He looked at me for a few seconds and then shifted his gaze back up to the sky. I sighed, "Itachi-nii let me check." I reached my hand to his temple, but his hands flashed into my sight, stopping my hands. I glared at him, "Let me go Uchiha! I just wanna help." He smirked at me and stood up. "You may check if you can defeat me in a fight." I sighed, "What do you consider defeat?" His smirk widened, if it was possible. "Drawing blood." I nodded my head. "Fine with me; that's simple enough." I dropped into my usual fighting stance. Truth be told, I was excited. I had always looked up to Itachi-nii and now was my chance to show how good I got. He looked to my waist, "No weapons though." I huffed, "That's not fair. How am I supposed to draw blood without a blade?" He smirked again, "You'll figure something out. Now no weapons." I huffed again, but placed my sword and fan at the base of a tree. I didn't carry kunai anymore so I didn't have to worry about that. I dropped into a stance again, offensive this time with more weight on my front foot so I could move forward faster. I activated my kekkai genkai, my eyes turning blue in the process, and I saw a flame around Itachi's torso. It was kind of small for what a grown man should have; this meant I still needed to work on his heart. His red, sharingan eyes were piercing through mine but I ignored it. I summoned wind chakra to my hands and charged at him. He smirked as I sliced at his body. I turned behind me as his clone disappeared. I performed several hand signs and a dome of swirling wind surrounded me as Itachi ran towards me. The dome resembles Neji's heavenly spin technique. Itachi collided with the dome and flew to my left due to the winds speed. I looked over at him, stopping my jutsu, and smirking. My smirk faded when I couldn't see him. I looked around, panicked. My smirk returned, however, when I saw the blue flame in a tree. I performed a good amount of hand signs and summoned my twin wind dragons. They flew to either side of the tree and crashed into it. The tree splintered at the base and I jumped away as it fell to the forest floor. I summoned a barrier in front of me and flames slammed against it. I could still feel the heat from them, but I didn't get burned. I narrowed my eyes in the direction of the flames; he had moved again. I huffed; I really didn't feel like having to chase him around. I looked to my left and saw another stream of flames coming towards me. I smirked and ducked under them, rushing towards the source. I jabbed at his calf with my chakra filled hand and he dispersed in a group of crows. I huffed again and looked to the other side of the field. He was staring at me with his red eyes. I narrowed my glowing blue eyes; the tomoe in his eyes began spinning and I felt light-headed. I saw his eyes narrow slightly after a few seconds. He looked deep in thought and I took this opportunity to attack him. I summoned a breeze and disappeared with it as it brushed past me; I disappeared right before his eyes and he looked confused, but quickly hid it. Not moving his head, his eyes scanned the area. I reappeared above him and slammed my foot down. He dodged it and I kicked the air in his direction. I released my chakra and a gust of wind sped in his direction. I saw his hands speed though hand signs at an impossible rate and a wall of earth formed in front of him. My wind slammed into the wall and dissipated. The wall crumbled to reveal the tree that Itachi was in front of. I summoned chakra to my hands and fell into my stance. I stayed alert but didn't hear anything; I couldn't even see the flame I was used to. After a few seconds the flame flashed to my left, but I didn't move. When his hand made contact with my shoulder I grabbed it with my right hand and slammed my left into his side. His eyes widened fractionally and then he smirked. I let his hand go and plopped to the ground. "Gotcha" I said. I saw small drops of blood fall to the ground in front of me. I sighed and stood up. "Let me see it." He nodded and lifted his shirt so I could reach the wound easier. I healed it quickly and sat back down. "Now you have to let me look at your eyes." He gave me an exasperated look but knelt down anyway; he always kept his promised if he could help it. I held my hands next to his temples and released my chakra. It probed around for awhile and then I withdrew it. "Well, the chakra in your eyes is beginning to build up, which is quite common actually. Also, the chakra paths in your eyes are swollen. I can remove the chakra build up, but you will have to stop using your sharingan for awhile, at least the Mangekyou since that is what I'm suspecting is doing the most damage." He looked me and then nodded, "Very well, I will use Mangekyou sparingly." He continued on after that, "What kind of fighting style was that?" I looked at him surprised, "You mean Kristi-nee doesn't fight like that?" He shook his head. "Oh, well I read some scrolls on my clan and it explained that that was the preferred fighting style. I summon wind chakra to my limbs to cause more damage." "Do you know what your second chakra nature is?" I thought a little bit and shook my head. I have never tried using a different type of jutsu. "The easiest way would probably be to go through several jutsu types and see which one you can do." I looked at him, "But you can use like all of them!" He smirked, "That is because I practice a lot." I huffed, "Fine, let's start now! But why did you ask?" "Depending on the chakra type, you would be able to apply the same concept. This means you can make your taijutsu more effective." _Oh, I knew that. _"Okay, show me some seals!" He laughed lightly and stood up. He performed the hand signs for the earth style jutsu he used earlier and I copied him. I executed the seals perfectly, but nothing happened. He repeated this for a lightning and water which still didn't work. He then tried his clan's infamous fire style. I performed the hand seals and fire rushed out of my mouth. We found out which chakra I had. I smirked, this would be fun. I summoned the now active fire chakra to my hands. The fire surrounded my hands, causing it to seem like I had on gloves made of fire. I smiled at my limbs; it didn't even hurt. I concentrated the chakra even more, causing the fire to burn hotter and turn to a shade of blue. I smiled even more and began laughing. "Look Itachi-nii! It worked!" He smiled at me. He showed me how to perform the fireball, great fireball, and the dragon flame jutsus. I practiced them outside for awhile. He went back inside after about an hour.

I practiced the jutsus until the moon was high in the sky. I went inside, took a shower, and went to sleep. I was gonna make dango tomorrow!


	18. Chapter 17: Relocating

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 17: Relocating

I walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. I looked over to Deidara who was sitting across from me; he was staring at me. "What the hell are you looking at?" I complained. It was too early to be staring at me already. I heard laughing and looked to the entrance, sweeping my across Deidara's scowling face in the process. "What are you laughing at Hidan?" Hidan plopped down in a chair to my right. "You." I shook my head; he was such an idiot. "You guys aren't eating anything?" Deidara shook his head, "Nope, there's no food." I huffed, "I bought plenty of things yesterday so you could make stuff!" He looked at me, "We're men; we don't cook." I scowled at him. "Whatever, I'm not making you anything though." I got up and took out ingredients to make pancakes; flour, eggs, milk, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter. I sifted the flour, combined the ingredients and began placing the batter on the hot griddle. When they were done, I put them on a large plate and put the plate in the middle of the table, along with butter and syrup. I took three for myself and began eating. Deidara and Hidan hesitantly reached for the pancakes. "You can take some. I decided to be nice today." I said and continued eating. Kisame entered the room and grabbed enough pancakes to feed four grown men. _Good thing I made extra._ Kakuzu and Itachi entered the kitchen a few minutes after Kisame. Deidara and Hidan got into an argument, and Kisame was laughing at them, so I guess you could say the kitchen got kind of loud. "Rei-chan, make sure you have all of your things together. We are leaving early tomorrow morning." I looked at Itachi, "Where are we going?" He thought something over and then answered me. "We are going to a different hideout." I sighed; that didn't explain much. "Fine, let me go get the few things that I have, together." I got up and walked to my room, bringing two raw fish from the fridge so Katsu could eat something. "Here Katsu, I brought breakfast." I handed the fish to him and looked around my room. The only things I had on me were the things I had with me on the mission a few days ago. I put my sword and fan on the bed, along with the medical pouch I brought with me. _"Well, this is all my stuff, besides the clothes I'm wearing."_ I sighed and plopped on my bed. I was beginning to get homesick already and it's only been a couple of days. I stood up and went outside; I wanted to go through the new fire style jutsus. It was about one when I finished practicing and I went inside to take a shower. I walked through the halls for awhile after and passed by the kitchen. I looked through the doorway and then walked through. I got out the ingredients to make dango and made several plates. I put on some tea to go with it and made Mitarashi, a sort of sweet, sauce to go with it. I sat down at the table and began eating some. I smirked when Itachi walked into the room and grabbed some dango with tea; dango was his favorite. "Do you like it Itachi-nii?" He looked up and then continued eating. "I guess that's a yes." I mumbled under my breath. "Are all of your things together for the morning?" I scowled at him, "The only things I have are my weapons and the clothes I'm wearing Nii-chan." He nodded, "Very well. I need to give you something when we are done eating." I tilted my head in confusion but nodded nonetheless.

When we finished eating I followed Itachi to his room. He shut the door behind us and went into his closet. I sat on his bed, curious about what he was doing. A few minutes later he walked toward me, with something black hanging around his arm. I tilted my head and took it when he handed it to me. It unfolded in my hands and I scowled; it was an Akatsuki cloak. "You are to wear this when we go to the new hideout. I huffed but nodded anyway. If I was going to accomplish this mission, I had to act as if I wanted to be in this organization. "Itachi-nii, why did you join this organization anyway? I know you can't like taking the lives of people just because they had a beast put inside them." He looked at me, "I have my own reasons for joining." I scowled at him, "I'm gonna figure them out Uchiha, just watch." He smirked at me but didn't say anything. I walked out of his room and into mine. I plopped down on the bed and fell asleep.

"Wake up bitch!" I jumped up when I felt Katsu jump on me. I scowled as I saw he was growling at Hidan. "Go away." He scowled at me, "We're leaving so get up!" He walked out of the room and slammed the door. I scowled and got dressed. I strapped my sword to my side and my fan on my lower back. "Ready Katsu-kun?" He looked at me and nodded. We walked into the halls and outside with the rest of the group. We ran through the forest eastward. After about five hours, Hidan and Kakuzu split up from the rest, probably for a mission. We stopped in a clearing as the moon ascended into the night sky. We started back up in the morning. This pattern continued for three days until we were outside a village with what seemed to be a constant rainfall; the hidden rain village. _"So this is where the Akatsuki headquarters is." _ Kisame, Itachi and I walked through the rain to a tall building; Deidara left yesterday to meet up with his partner, Tobi. "Itachi-nii, can you take me to wherever Pein-sama is?" I added the honorific on whim; I had to act like I wanted to join, right? He looked at me, "Are you sure?" He asked me in hushed tones. I tilted my head at him, "Of course I'm sure. I wanna join Akatsuki. The people are entertaining and it'll probably be more of a challenge for me than in the boring village." His eyes widened slightly at me. "You don't know what you are talking about. You will miss Hige and your friends." I looked at him, "Nii-chan, I've already thought about it the last few days. You are all S-class Nin. Surely your missions are more exciting than chasing after runaways that I can kill with my eyes closed." I glanced passed Itachi and saw Kisame gaping. "I didn't think you'd have it in you, Vixen." He looked over to Itachi, "She would be a great asset to the group though, with her medical skills. Not to mention she's got current knowledge about how Konoha works." He glanced at me, probably looking for some sort of reaction. I smiled at him, "I sure do! Did you know that the there aren't as many Anbu patrolling during the day? They figure people will be more likely to ambush the village at night." This was a lie of course but he didn't know. The patrol groups were the same amount, day and night. I saw Itachi's facial expression harden at my lie. I frowned at him. Why should he be concerned, he was in the organization of his own free will. I'd ask him about it later. "Itachi-nii, if you won't take me I'm sure Kisame would." "Yeah, I'll take the little Vixen. You need to rest anyway; you had longer night shifts than us." He looked upset but nodded anyway. We walked into the building and down several halls. Itachi separated from us a while back. It was just Kisame, Katsu and me. We came upon a giant steel door. Kisame knocked politely and entered when a deep voice beckoned us in. I saw Pein smirk as he noticed I was wearing the Akatsuki cloak. "What is the meaning of this?" He looked pointedly at me. I bowed to him, "I will take you up on your offer. I would like to join Akatsuki." He gave me a look. "I am finding it hard to believe you since you gave such a fight before." I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and saw a dark figure in the back corner; he was wearing a mask. My eyes burned and I activated my kekkai genkai. I held in my surprise; this guy's flame was very dark and sinister. He was not someone to be messed with. I furrowed my brows as the masked man spoke, "Hi, my name is Tobi! What is the pretty lady's name?" I looked at him, "I am Rei Kitsuna." I decided to go along with it. "It is nice meeting you Tobi." I bowed and looked back to Pein, who looked suspicious. "Why is it you decided to join?" "Well I had some time to think over some things. My skills weren't pushed very much. As you know I am a Jounin, but the Hokage sent me on Anbu ranked missions, such as capturing runaway Nin, as high as A-ranked. That wasn't too much of a challenge though. And, I figured that since your members were considered S-class missing Nin that the missions would be more… fulfilling. It is a change of pace." I smiled at him as I said the last part. Change of pace was right. He was contemplating it when a cheery voice broke in. "I think we should let her join Pein-sama!" I looked over to Tobi and smiled. Kisame spoke on my behalf as well, "Her skills as a medical ninja would come in handy as well." Pein sighed, "Very well. You will be sent on missions whenever I need you and will be partnered randomly, except with Itachi. You two were close at one point, I don't need you planning anything." I nodded excitedly. "Hai, thank you very much Pein-sama!" I bowed and ran out of the room and down the halls.

"Come in" I walked in and sat on the bed next to Itachi. "Pein said I could join!" I said excitedly. He looked at me. "Why do you want to join so badly? You will be hunted after every day for the rest of your life." I scoffed lightly to myself. "I already explained it to you Nii-chan!" I thought about something. "Since I told you why I joined, I want you to tell me." Itachi sighed, "I have already told you." I shook my head, "I want the real reason." He sighed again and then looked around. He performed several hand signs and I could feel chakra circulating through the walls; nobody would hear us. I tilted my head in confusion; why didn't he want anybody to hear? "I joined because… I needed to keep an eye on Sasuke and the village." I furrowed my brows, keep an eye on? "What do you mean? Why would you want to keep an eye on them?" He looked at me, "I wanted to make sure that Sasuke wouldn't be killed by people in the council." This confused me even more; why would the council want to kill the remaining Uchiha in the village? "I don't understand Nii-chan." "I guess I'll have to explain from the beginning. Did you ever figure out why my clan was massacred?" I shook my head. "I was ordered by the council to kill my family." I gasped at this. I knew he wouldn't do it because of power, but I never thought of this. "My clan was planning a coup d'état. I was to be their trump card, annihilating the people that got in their way. As you seem to know, I am not one for fighting so I strongly disagreed with their thoughts. I was a double agent of sorts. My clan wanted me to get into Anbu and give them information on the village while the Hokage and council members wanted me to give information on my clan, which I did. They eventually came up with the best plan, a mass killing of the Uchiha clan. I agreed that that was probably the best idea. My clan had to be killed in order for the lives of innocents to be saved. I disobeyed orders, however, when I left Sasuke alive. My orders were to kill everyone in the clan, but I left him alive. I thought that with him so young, he could continue living as a child without thinking about some stupid revenge years in the past." "What does this have to do with joining Akatsuki?" "In Akatsuki I have the excuse to return to Konoha. Whenever I show up, I am warning the council that I am still around and should they harm Sasuke, I will kill them." I looked at him, "That makes more sense then. What about the village part? Why are you looking out for it if they are the ones who ordered your family dead?" "I gave away me peaceful life in the village for the sake of innocent lives that had no idea they were in danger. I would rather that not have been in vain." Oh, that makes sense too. "So, you're still loyal to the village? Is that why you seem angry when I talk about joining the group?" His eyes hardened again. "Yes, I am still loyal to Konoha. Now it is your turn to tell the truth. Why have you joined?" I looked at him, contemplating and weighing the pros and cons. I sighed, deciding to tell him. "Actually, this is my mission. I was told to get as much information as I could and I thought that joining would be the best way. It'd be even easier if Pein trusted me but I wasn't expecting that."


	19. Chapter 18: Mission with Tobi

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 18: Mission with Tobi

Itachi raised a brow at me, "Your mission is to join Akatsuki?" I nodded. "Why would Konoha need more information on the organization? They already have a sufficient amount as to the goals and abilities of each member." I shook my head, "I'm not sure why. I do know that Tsunade wants me to send any interesting information to her. She has become very protective of Naruto and since Akatsuki is targeting him, she is taking extra precautions." Itachi's eyes warmed very slightly; I almost missed it. "I see he is being treated better." I nodded, "Yep, just about everyone loves him. He makes friends pretty easily." "Good. Now, how are you sending the Hokage information?" I looked at him warily, apprehensive to tell him. I let out a sigh, "That is why I have Katsu." Itachi nodded at me, "You are going to send him? Weren't there two foxes?" I nodded, "Yep. I sent Kitsa as soon as I arrived at the base. She and Katsu have some sort of telekinetic ability; they can communicate with each other through their minds. I don't think anybody but me, and now you, know about this ability. This is probably the reason why Katsu is allowed to stay with me." Itachi nodded, "That was a smart move." "Thank you" "You'd better be getting back to your room before they become suspicious." I thought about it and then nodded, "Okay, see ya tomorrow Nii-chan!"

Slowly, I sat up in bed, stretching my arms high above my head and yawned. Looking to my left I saw Katsu curled up on the floor beside my bed. I smiled to myself and got ready for the day. "Come on Katsu, time for breakfast." I said as I walked out of the bathroom and towards the door to the hallway. Katsu nodded, yawned tiredly, and followed me to the kitchen. I made a bowl of cereal for me, nice and simple, and took out a raw fish for Katsu. "Mornin Vixen" "Morning Kisame" "Did ya make me anything today?" Scowling at him I said, "Kisame, I'm not your maid or wife, I'm not making you food every day." He mumbled something under his breath and went to the fridge. "Oh, Pein-sama wants to see you in his office." I nodded, quickly finished my breakfast, and left the kitchen, Katsu on my heels. Patiently, I knocked on the door and entered when told to. "You summoned me Pein-sama?" I bowed politely, not wanting to get on his bad side today. "Yes, you have a mission." He threw a slim manila folder across the desk. "You will be turning this man in for a reward. He has a large price on his head and that money will be a great contribution to this organization. Tobi will be your partner." I nodded; I didn't really want to be partnered with him though, he gave me a bad feeling, with that dark aura and all. "You have one hour to get prepared and leave." I bowed and left. I gathered my sword and fan and went outside to wait for Tobi. Gently, I sat in the grass and leaned against a strong oak tree behind me. I opened the folder to see the strong face of a muscled man. "Ishikawa Yuu. He is a missing nin from the Stone village. S-ranked. Specializes in genjutsu but taijutsu and ninjutsu are at high levels. Last seen at Stone's borders a month ago." Sighing, I closed the folder. _Hopefully he's still around there after a month._ Glancing over to Katsu I saw him chasing a butterfly a few feet away. I giggled at him, "Katsu, I'm gonna need you on this mission." He nodded and continued playing. "REI-CHAAANNNNN!" Katsu immediately ran to my side and I patted his head. "Hi Tobi, ready to leave?" I tried to act nice. "Hai!" Slowly, I stood up, adjusted my sword, brushed off my cloak and ran off in the direction of the Stone Village. "Eh, wait Rei-chan! You are going too fast!" I turned my head to see Tobi behind me and sighed. "Tobi, I'm not slowing down. Leader-sama would be most displeased if this mission took longer than expected. So, hurry up!" I looked forward and continued running.

Two and a half days later…

"Katsu, sniff around and try to pick up any extra scents." He nodded and began walking around the clearing. We arrived about a minute ago. The journey wasn't too bad; Tobi caught up after a while and kept pace. The comfortable feeling of charka behind my eyes soothed me as I activated my nameless doujutsu. "Rei-chan, your eyes turned blue!" I nodded while looking around, "Yes, it is my clan's doujutsu." "What is it called?" I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. "I don't know. I haven't seen it in any of my clan's scrolls yet." Katsu made a small whining sound to get my attention without talking. I looked over and he looked to the west of us, closer to the border. "Katsu if we go that way we may be intercepted by the patrols." He gave me a look. I sighed, the most recent scent seemed to have led that way. "Alright, let's go check it out." Slowly, I walked in the direction Katsu pointed out, my doujutsu activated. I took in a quick breath as I noticed four average sized flames to the right of my group. I held up a hand to signal silence and walked to a tree near the flames. I glanced over and saw four males, all wearing a stone forehead protector. "Nobody's here either, guess it's safe to move on." I let out a small breath as I heard this. They would be moving on soon. "Wait, do you sense that?" My eyes widened and I concentrated, trying to figure out if I or Tobi hadn't masked our chakra good enough._ That's not it, our chakras are concealed perfectly, then what i- _"Hey, who are you?" I looked to the group and saw an extra figure. It was Ishikawa Yuu, my target. "That's Yuu, the new missing nin!" "I'd hope you know my name! Leave now and I won't kill you." This was perfect; I could knock him out while he was distracted with these guys. Otherwise it'd be hard keeping him alive. I'll get a bigger reward if he's alive. I saw Ishikawa perform several hand signs, very quickly, and I could sense the air in front of me shimmer with energy. _Genjutsu_ This guy moved fast. I looked behind, ready to tell Tobi to stay back while I completed the mission but he wasn't there. "Hey, I'm Tobi and I've come to capture you!" I slapped my forehead, _dammit Tobi, so much for a sneak attack._ I walked out and glanced at the four men stuck in the genjutsu. It was strong; they weren't getting out any time soon. I looked to my target and smirked when he said, "The Kaze Megami is after me? What an honor!" "Yeah, you won't think it's an honor when I have your head." He laughed at this, "What makes you think you can beat me? You may have a reputation but that doesn't mean anything." I shook my head, "You're right, a name doesn't mean anything, but reasons behind how I've gained that reputation does. You don't have a chance." "That's right, Rei-chan is gonna kill you!" I shook my head again, at Tobi this time. "Tobi, please just sit back, I can handle this." "Hai Rei-chan!" He gave me a look, like he was excited to see how I handled this mission. His aura got dark again. There was something wrong about him but I didn't have a chance to dwell on it now. "Okay, get ready Ishikawa." He laughed, "I think you should take your own advice Megami." I rushed at him and we engaged in taijutsu. The folder was right, his taijutsu was good, but I was faster. I sent a roundhouse kick to his temple, hoping to end this quick but he flipped backward, performing hand signs at the same time. My eyes began burning._ He's using genjutsu. I could counteract it with my eyes, but then Tobi would become even more suspicious of my true abilities… Screw it, I don't care._ I summoned slightly more chakra to my eyes and canceled the genjutsu. That was one of my doujutsu's abilities, I could cancel genjutsu at just about any level. Yuu gave me a strange look and tried again. Again, he did several hand signs, using a stronger, S-ranked genjutsu this time. And again, my eyes began burning, warning me of what was to come and I canceled it. He gave a growl and attacked me, putting even more power behind his techniques. I continued dodging his moves but he wasn't tiring. Time to change up. I summoned flames to my hands and grabbed his fist that was aimed at my forehead. I ground my feet into the forest floor as I was pushed back by the force and continued to keep a hold on his fist. It was slowly scorching his skin, giving him varying degrees of burns. At last he pulled his hand away and jumped back. I began performing hand seals for my Dragon breath jutsu when my eyes began burning again. I huffed. _This guy is persistent!_ I released the jutsu and yelled "Wind Style: Dragon Breath Jutsu!" Yuu disappeared in a puff of smoke. My eyes narrowed as I looked around the clearing. My eyes were still burning. _Why are they still burning, I released the genjutsu already. Unless… he used a layered genjutsu. _ I huffed at my realization. I closed my eyes and summoned chakra around me, the surrounding winds picking up in speed and strength. I waited several long seconds before I released the second genjutsu. I opened my glowing blue eyes and saw Yuu running towards me, fist raised. His face took on a surprised expression and I released my jutsu. Harsh winds exploded outwards, slamming into anything near. Luckily, Katsu had taken cover when he sensed my intention earlier. I couldn't say the same about Tobi. I heard two screams, one from Tobi and the other from Ishikawa. I heard a thud as Ishikawa slammed against a tree and slumped to the ground. I ran towards him and checked his pulse. _Good, he's still alive._ I took out a small vial from within my medical pouch and injected the contents. He wouldn't wake up for two days. "Ugh, that hurt. Rei-channn, why didn't you warn me?" I glanced over to Tobi, "It would have slowed the mission down. You shouldn't have been in my way anyway." I told him coldly. I saw his eyes darken at my rude comment, raising my suspicions. I deactivated my doujutsu and turned my attention back to Ishikawa. I summoned two clones to carry him to where I would receive the bounty. "Come on Tobi, we have to finish the mission." He nodded and we left.

"You guys should've seen Rei-chan! She totally kicked that shinobi's butt!" I sighed and walked through the door Tobi had slammed open. I gently closed it and walked into the kitchen; I was starving. Pein had removed the jutsu from the door shortly after I said I would join, so it no longer shocked me. Patiently, I walked to the counter and grabbed an apple. "Where's the cash?" I looked to Kakuzu. He was the treasurer and the one I was supposed to give the money to. I took a bite of the apple and pulled out a scroll. I opened the scroll, bit my thumb and ran it across the kanji written on the scroll. With a loud pop a bag of money appeared on the scroll. "It's all here. I counted before I left." Kakuzu looked pleased, took the bag, and walked out of the kitchen, to his room no doubt. I looked around and searched for Itachi's chakra signature when I didn't see him. "Kisame, where is Itachi-nii?" He looked at me, mouth full of rice, "Leader-sama sent him on some mission." I cocked my head to the side in confusion. Members usually went in pairs but it was none of my business at the moment. "How was your first mission with Tobi?" Kisame looked like he was laughing at me on the inside. Deciding not to humor him I said, "It went fine thank you. He stayed out of my way for the most part." I left the kitchen in favor of my room, leaving a bored Kisame alone.


	20. Chapter 19: Stranger

**A/N: I had a reader say that the paragraphs were too long. And, looking back, I agree. I'm very sorry. But I tried to make it better this time, as well as future chapters! Please tell me if you see anything else that needs to be fixed!**

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 19: Stranger?

Yawning, I got up and stretched. I looked to the door; the source that woke me up.

Sleepily, I got up and walked to the door.

"Yes?" I looked into Konan's gold-brown eyes.

"Pein-sama has another mission for you. You are expected in two minutes."

"Alright, I'll be there."

She nodded her head and walked away. I got dressed quickly and walked to Pein's office.

The room was still very dark since the first time I walked in. I looked straight to Pein and could sense two distinct auras; Konan and someone else. The other aura felt like Tobi's but more sinister.

"You wanted to see me Pein-sama?"

"Yes, you know of the three Kitsuna scrolls, correct?" I resisted the urge to narrow my eyes, instead nodding my head.

"Yes, I have read two of them. Why do you ask?"

"One of those scrolls has a seal on it, with a picture of a fox on the outside, correct?" I thought about this.

"Yes, I haven't found a way to open that one yet."

He nodded his head, "That is why I have taken precautions. Your mission is to go into Konoha undetected and retrieve that scroll. I don't care about the other ones."

I nodded my head, "Hai, Pein-sama."

"You leave as soon as you are ready. Zetsu is going with you."

Once again I nodded my head and left the room calmly. Dammit, what did he mean by precautions? Oh well, if I, of the Kitsuna blood, couldn't open up the scroll, it's very unlikely anybody else can. With that I walked to my room, grabbed my weapons and went outside to wait for Zetsu.

I didn't have to wait long as he emerged from the ground not five feet in front of me. "Ready Zetsu?"

"Yes, we're leaving now." With that, he disappeared into the ground and I could feel his chakra leave the area in the direction of Konoha.

How rude. I followed after his trail, excitement and worry coursing through me.

We paused outside the wall surrounding Konoha. I was practically shaking with excitement at the thought of seeing my friends, especially Hige-kun. But that excitement was immediately pushed down with disappointment as I remembered I couldn't be noticed.

I sighed and turned to Zetsu, "So, you're coming in with me, right?"

The white side of his face was in control as he said "Yes, you cannot be trusted as of yet." That was one way to say it.

"Alright." I thought for a few seconds. "We'll walk along the wall until we reach a tree with a notch on it."

He didn't say anything as he began walking. He doesn't even know where we're going. The idiot.

We walked for about twenty minutes until we reached the familiar looking tree. From this spot I knew the exact amount of chakra needed to be in the kitchen of my home. This would reduce the risk of being caught.

"Come here Zetsu." He gave me a look and didn't move.

I huffed, "If you don't come here I'm going to tell Pein-sama you didn't do your job now hurry up!"

Again he gave me a look but came to stand next to me. I reached out to touch his arm and in an instant we were standing in the kitchen of my old home. We immediately masked our chakras and I brought my hands together in the Ram sign and searched my house for any accompanying chakras.

I gave a sigh of relief when I didn't find anything and began walking around. Now where did I put those scrolls?

For a few moments I thought about where they might be as I walked around, looking at my house. I walked into the living room and looked at the floor about a foot away from the couch. Slowly I walked to the spot that held my attention and crouched down; Zetsu was looking over my shoulder.

I performed several hand signs, placed my left hand on the boards of wood and the area on the floor slid out from under my palm. I reached down and grabbed three scrolls. I placed them on the table to my left and studied them.

The one Pein wanted was in the middle so I grabbed that one and placed the other two, covered in dust, into the compartment. I did more hand signs and the spot was covered again, like nothing had happened.

I shoved the scroll into an inside pocket in my cloak and turned to Zetsu. "Okay, ready to leave?" He nodded and we teleported outside of Konoha's walls again. Zetsu disappeared into the earth as I began running towards the Rain. I could still sense his chakra a few feet in front of me; he still didn't trust me. I shrugged, I didn't care.

We ran in silence for a long time; that is, until Zetsu managed to set off a genjutsu trap. It was dark out, but that was no excuse; he should have been more careful.

I sighed and came to a stop next to him, the black half of his face cussing. I rolled my eyes and released the genjutsu. It was powerful; we could have run forever and not get any closer to our destination.

I turned in the direction of the approaching chakras and narrowed my eyes. One of them was familiar. Without turning my head, I gave half of my attention to Zetsu, "There are four chakra signatures. They seem pretty powerful. Should we engage them or continue to Rain? We can outrun them."

Zetsu thought for a few moments, "We will engage, otherwise they will follow us. It is Itachi's younger brother, Sasuke Uchiha." My eyes widened slightly. That's why one of them felt familiar. I haven't seen him for years.

I clenched my teeth; this might not be a good encounter. Setting a genjutsu trap would be useless since Sasuke had access to the Sharingan and I left Katsu at the base so I couldn't use him as a distraction. They were coming closer. "Zetsu, hide in the tree ten feet to my left. Sasuke will most likely have all of his attention on me so he won't notice you." He nodded and did as I said, which was a first.

I summoned fire based chakra to my hands and teleported fifteen feet in front of me as I saw Sasuke's figure appear through the foliage.

I slammed my flaming fist into his chest which disappeared in a puff of smoke. I ducked under a large sword that was intent on removing my head.

I picked up my right leg and swung it in the direction of the wielder and slammed it into his side, resulting in cussing and a slam into a tree. I didn't have time to follow up as a giant hand was aimed at my heart.

I jumped and flipped behind the shinobi, kicking out behind me. My eyes widened as I kicked air and the sound of chirping birds reached my ears. He's using chidori already?

Tendrils of electricity shot out towards me, intent on stopping my heart. Thinking fast I did several, quick hand seals, grabbed my fan from my back, and held it out in front of me. I shoved the stored chakra from the technique through my fan and it spread into a wind-based dome surrounding me. The electricity slammed into the dome and disappeared. My eyes narrowed at the strength of the attack. "Where's Itachi?" I released my jutsu and looked at the tall man that was Sasuke. He grew a lot over the years.

"He isn't here." I looked to my right. The red head Zetsu had been fighting jumped to join the shark-looking guy and the big, orange-haired guy that flanked Sasuke.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed at my answer, "Who are you?"

I smirked, reached up slowly towards my straw hat, and removed it. "Uchiha, why are you in Fire Country?"

He scowled at me, "None of your business. What are you doing with Akatsuki? You don't seem like one to betray the village with all your ideals."

I narrowed my eyes and decided to use his words. "It is none of your business." I continued talking as Zetsu walked to stand beside me. "Itachi-nii is too busy to waste his time with you so why don't you just run along now and play with your…" I looked at his group. "group of weirdos."

The girl with red hair became angry at my comment. "Bitch, I bet I could kick your ass!"

I smirked at her, "Go ahead and try. I'm sure Sasuke won't care if you die." She bristled with anger but didn't step forward. "Zetsu, do you want me to kill them?"

I saw Sasuke's eyes narrow at me. "Not right now, we have a mission to complete." I nodded, "Yeah, you're right."

I turned my attention back to Sasuke and his group. "Sasuke, you need to teach your… underlings, how to control themselves or they're gonna wind up dead. Not that I care." I took two steps back, towards Zetsu and touched his arm. I summoned enough chakra that would take us far enough so that Sasuke wouldn't be able to sense us, and we disappeared.

The rest of the journey to Rain was uneventful.

Calmly, we walked into Pein's office. "How did the mission go?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but Zetsu beat me. "It was fine. We were not detected. But, we ran into Sasuke's younger brother."

Pein's expression didn't change at all. "That is fine. His attention has been on finding and killing Itachi since he killed Orochimaru. He is not a problem to us as of yet."

My eyes widened. I didn't know Sasuke killed Orochimaru.

"Where is the scroll?" His attention was on me now.

"Oh, sorry." I walked up and gave Pein the scroll. He nodded in approval. "Itachi is bringing a… guest that might know how to open this scroll."

I tilted my head in confusion. "Who would know how to open it? I couldn't even figure it out."

Pein looked at me, "You will find out tomorrow." I held in a huff and nodded.

"You are dismissed. Zetsu, you have a mission. Tobi will not be accompanying you." Zetsu disappeared into the floor and I left to go into my room.

My eyes snapped open and I jerked into a sitting position on my bed. Katsu looked at me and then went back to sleep.

I scrunched my brows in confusion. What woke me up?

I extended my sense throughout the base and could feel Itachi's presence just inside the barrier, along with another, familiar, chakra. This must be the guest Pein was talking about. But, there's an extra presence, small.

I got up and decided to check it out. I was somewhat known around Konoha for my curiosity.

I walked out of my room still clad in pajamas and walked outside. My eyes bled to a soft blue and three flames came into my vision. Two were very strong, bright flames. They suggested adults, strong and healthy. One was obviously Itachi-nii.

The third flame was somewhat small. It was very bright however, more so than even Naruto-kun's. It must've been a child. Only children could have that bright of a flame that represented pure innocence.

Soon they were close enough so I could see details. The child was a little girl with dark black hair that fell to just below her shoulders. She had dark, almost black, eyes. She was holding Itachi-nii and the other person's hands. This made me smile; Itachi-nii never held hands, unless…

My eyes snapped to the other person. She was slightly shorter than Itachi; came to his nose. She had waist length light brown hair and blue eyes that matched mine currently. Itachi's gaze left the little girl and focused on me.

"Rei-chan, why are you up?" I shrugged my shoulders, "I sensed unfamiliar chakra and that woke me up." He nodded his head. I walked towards them, "Rei-chan, that's really you?" I looked to the tall woman, my sister.

I nodded and I couldn't hold back anymore. I ran towards her and jumped into her arms. I held back the tears that threatened to fall. We hugged for what felt like an eternity and finally separated. I noticed that her eyes were bright with tears; she didn't try holding them back.

"Rei-chan, how have you been?" And then, her eyes hardened. "Why are you with Akatsuki?"

I tilted my head, "Itachi-nii didn't tell you?"

She shook her head, "No, he just said you were here. Otherwise I wouldn't be here."

I was about to tell her the real reason why I was here but there could be someone spying so I settled on something else, a half-truth. "I wanted to stay with Itachi-nii."

She narrowed her eyes at me and then sighed. "Okay okay, whatever you say Rei-chan." She paused abruptly and pondered something before asking, "Wait, you're not mad at us?"

I tilted my head to the right. "Why would I be mad?"

"Because we killed the Uchiha clan and left! Any sane person would be mad!"

I laughed lightly. "I was a little upset at first but then I thought, you wouldn't have done it without a good reason. And I was right!"

Kristi looked to Itachi at that moment. "You told her."

"Yes I did. She wanted to know."

Kristi-nee sighed, "I guess that's okay. We just really didn't want Sasuke-kun to know."

I narrowed my eyes. "Why?"

She looked at me, "So he'd have something to inspire him to work harder."

"Yeah, well he went to train with Orochimaru." Her eyes widened and she jerked her head to Itachi. "When did this happen?" He thought over his answer, "Two years ago. He took a different path than what I had expected."

"Yeah, different path is right."

"Speaking of which, I saw Sasuke on my way back from my mission. He has his own team now and killed Orochimaru." Itachi didn't look surprised but Kristi did.

"Oh? Itachi-kun, you don't tell me anything." His gaze softened as he turned to look at her. "Sorry. I had other things on my mind."

Itachi looked down as a small hand pulled at his cloak. "Otou-chan, who is she?" The girl pointed in my direction. "This is your Ka-chan's sister." The girl pondered on this.

"So, she's my aunt?" Itachi nodded, "Yes, this is your Aunt Rei."

I knelt down to her height. "Hello. Your name is Izayoi, ne?" She nodded. I smiled at her; she was just like her father. She didn't like to talk too much. Kristi-nee was the next one to speak.

"Okay, let's go inside before we get a cold. It's chilly out here!"

Itachi-nii, Kristi-nee and Iza-chan all went to Nii-chan's room to get in some sleep and I went to mine. It was difficult for me to fall asleep; I was so excited to catch up with my Onee-chan!

It was very hot in the kitchen. I've been up making pancakes for everybody for what seemed like... well, forever! I have no idea how the other members will react to Kristi-nee being back; unless they already knew.

I walked over slowly and placed the two plates filled high with pancakes. Syrup and butter were in the middle of the table besides the mountain of pancakes.

I set the table for seven people; Kristi-nee, Itachi-nii, Iza-chan, Deidara, Kisame, Tobi and myself. Kakuzu and Hidan were on a mission, thank goodness. Kristi-nee, Itachi-nii and Iza-chan all walked in as I finished setting the table.

Iza-chan's eyes were big as she looked at the pancakes. I placed a bowl of fruit on the table to finish the meal.

I looked at her, "Do you like pancakes Iza-chan?" She turned her eyes to me. "I haven't had them before."

I looked to Kristi-nee, shocked. She's the one who taught me how to make them. "You never made her any?" Kristi-nee shook her head. "Nope, I decided to stick with traditional meals for a little while. But it looks really good. Great job Rei-chan." I smiled at her. "Thank you Onee-chan!"

The three of them sat calmly at the table, Iza-chan already holding herself with the posture of someone with utmost courtesy. Kristi-nee would have drilled politeness into her since she was born; she tried to with me but I was stubborn.

Kisame and Deidara walked in talking as I took my seat. "Good morning guys." I smiled up at them.

Kisame started drooling as soon as his eyes fell to the table. He plopped down in a chair and began picking up pancakes; Deidara was a little less sloppy about it.

"Nice to see you again Kitsuna-san." I looked to Kisame with surprise in my face. It seemed Itachi-nii wasn't the only person he respected.

Nee-chan nodded her head, "You as well Kisame." His eyes fell to Iza-chan, "The mini Uchiha grew up a lot from the last time I saw her." Iza-chan glanced at him and then continued eating her pancakes. "Yes, that is what children do Kisame-san." Kristi had a small smile adorning her face.

I looked over to Deidara, who hadn't said anything yet; he looked tense. He met my gaze and then turned his attention to Kristi and Itachi. "Pein-sama wants to see you guys in his office in an hour." His gaze shifted to Izayoi. "He wants to see her as well." And with that, Deidara got up and left the kitchen, pancakes untouched.

Kristi-nee, Itachi-nii, Iza-chan and I were in Itachi-nii's room. He performed several hand signs, casting a jutsu around the room to prevent eavesdroppers. I turned a confused gaze to him. "What's wrong Itachi-nii?"

He kept his gaze on Kristi-nee. "Pein will kill you when you refuse to stay here with Izayoi." He turned to Izayoi and his expression softened. I looked back to Kristi-nee, "I know. That is why I have prepared a jutsu to overcome the sharingan."

Itachi's eyes narrowed at her comment, "That is impossible."

Kristi-nee just smiled at him and began to form hand signs. In a matter of seconds there were two duplicates of Kristi. It looks like a shadow clone jutsu. I narrowed my eyes at them, they had a lot more chakra than a normal shadow clone jutsu.

I activated my kekkai genkai and held back a gasp of surprise. Inside the chest of each clone was a small flame; the size of a child's. This means she must have sent a part of her soul in each clone. I tilted my head in confusion, "How did you do that nee-chan?"

She smiled at me, "Maybe I'll tell you one day, but we have no time now. Pein will get irritable."

Itachi looked over the clones and nodded his head. "This will work. Where are we going?" I looked at him, "What do you mean 'where'?"

"We are leaving Akatsuki. I will not risk them going after my wife and daughter while I am sent on a mission and I will not leave you here without protection. We are leaving." I pouted and crossed my arms. "Itachi-nii, I don't need protection. I can fend for myself thank you very much."

"You cannot protect yourself from Madara." I huffed but didn't say anything. I wouldn't win an argument with him.

"Hey! We could go to Konoha! I have to go there anyway since it's my home." Kristi and Itachi looked apprehensive.

Kristi is the one who spoke first. "Rei-chan, they will not trust us after what we did."

"All you have to do is explain to Tsunade-sama. She'll understand, especially if she finds the mission scroll." They still looked apprehensive about going but Itachi agreed. "That will be our best option. Izayoi will be safest in Konoha."

After several moments Kristi-nee agreed. "Okay, Iza-chan and I will leave while the clones go into his office." Itachi shook his head. "They will sense you leaving through the barrier."

"I can have a clone teleport them outside. That way they won't be sensed. I can mask its chakra." They looked at me and Itachi nodded. "That has a better chance of working. Have it go as far as it can with the chakra you give it." I nodded, "Okay"

I made a clone as Kristi transformed one of hers to look like Izayoi. Itachi, the two clones, and I walked out of the room as my clone transported them a few hours away from Rain.

We walked into Pein's office and stood in front of his desk. I had stopped by my room and equipped my sword and fan. Katsu accompanied us to Pein's room.

Right now, Katsu was standing next to me, barely touching my right leg. Itachi and the clone that resembled Kristi stood directly in front of the desk, to my left. The Izayoi clone stood behind her mother's legs.

Pein gave a slight smile. "It is good to see you again Kristi Kitsuna."

The clone spoke, "I wish I could say the same about you Pein. What did you want? I'm not giving you Izayoi." He narrowed his eyes. "I was not going to ask about Izayoi this time. I need you to see if you can open this scroll."

Just as he finished his sentence Tobi placed the Kitsuna scroll on the desk. Tobi glanced in Kristi's direction and her eyes turned into a fierce bright blue. She stared at Tobi with anger in her eyes. Tobi stared at her for several seconds before deciding to back down.

I narrowed my eyes at the exchange but decided not to comment. Pein cleared his throat. "Can you open this scroll or not?" Kristi turned her attention to the scroll and immediately drew her brows together. "How did you get this?"

"That was not my question Kitsuna."

She snapped her eyes to Pein. "No, I cannot open this. It has a seal that can only be removed by the Kitsuna of legend. I am not that Kitsuna."

His eyes narrowed once again. "Who is that Kitsuna?"

Kristi smirked, "I am not at liberty to tell you that. Either way you will not be able to use her."

Pein smirked as well, "I will be the judge of that. You are of no use to me anymore." With that, Pein shoved what looked like a metal rod into Kristi's chest, going through her back. The rest happened in a flash. Itachi grabbed the scroll and ran over to me just as the Izayoi clone changed into Kristi.

Kristi attacked Pein as I transported Itachi and Katsu to where the real Kristi and Izayoi were, several hours away.

We reappeared about fifty feet behind Kristi and Izayoi so they stopped as we ran to their side.

"I am very impressed Rei-chan." I smiled up at Kristi, "Thank you. You didn't really expect me to be slacking while you were gone did you?"

She shook her head, "No, but it was still very good. I think you are the only one to be able to do that, besides the Fourth."

I nodded, "Yeah, I am."

"You two have the scroll, correct?" Itachi took it out from inside his cloak. "Yes. You really do not know how to unseal it." It wasn't a question.

"Sure I do. We need the Kitsuna from the stories." He raised a brow at her. "And who is that Kitsuna?"

She shook her head, "We will talk about that in a safer area. For now we should be heading to Konoha." I nodded enthusiastically. It was finally time to go home, after almost a year.


End file.
